Tokyo, everyone is drawing comics, who still wants to fall in love?.

Chapter 345: Oiran + Miko = Witch
"Teacher Oda, are you being teased?" Yuko Mikami asked curiously.

As soon as Oda Shingo returned to his seat, she asked him this.

"Ah?" Oda Shingo pretended to be stupid.

"Don't pretend. We can see it clearly from here." Fujido Kaoru fiercely grabbed Oda Shingo's arm and squeezed it hard against her chest. "You actually used the excuse of going to the bathroom to pick up girls?"

The pulling force was very strong, but it didn't hurt because the area where the pressure was applied was too soft.

"She was looking at me. Who was flirting with whom?" Oda Nobuo quickly explained.

"You also took off your sunglasses and mask." Namikaze Youhe recreated the situation at that time very calmly.

"It's unfair! That courtesan is dressed like a monster, why would I flirt with her? If she flirts with me, I will just be scared and run away, okay?"

The three women thought about the situation at that time, and it seemed that Oda Nobuo really was fleeing in panic.

"Forget it. I won't bother with you." Fujido Kaoru snorted.

Namikaze Yuzuru looked at Oda Shingo and asked, "You said the oiran looks like a monster? Are you saying she's not pretty?"

"Ah? Isn't it?" Oda Shingo wondered if there was something wrong with his aesthetic taste.

"I think the Oiran is very pretty."

"The Oiran is so beautiful!"

“She’s really pretty.”

The three girls said almost in unison.

Oda Shingo rolled his eyes. It turned out that men and women have different aesthetics. Or maybe he still uses the Chinese aesthetics, while they are used to their own traditions? Just like the aesthetics of Huadan in Peking Opera?
He couldn't help but turn his gaze back to the field.

Except for one side of the rostrum, the three sides of the inner field around the stage have been occupied by the performing teams.

Oda Shingo easily found the oiran team, but was shocked to find that he couldn't find the oiran.

The rest, including the path-maker holding the "Kurokawa" lantern, the kappa, the fox, the attendants supporting and holding umbrellas, etc. were all there, but the oiran was not in the team.

"Where's the oiran?" Oda Shingo asked subconsciously, "Is it because her clothes were too heavy and her shoes were inconvenient, so she couldn't hold on and changed them?"

"Generally not, unless there is another performance task." Namikaze Youhe explained.

She was born in a ninja village and not only had she seen it many times, but she had also been taught a lot of traditions since she was a child.

Just as I was thinking about it, the Autumnal Equinox Festival had entered its climax.

Fujido Kaoki shouted, "Wow, they're starting to decorate the area around the stage with rice ears! There's a shrine maiden performance!"

Dongdongdang——Dongdongdang——

Eight people dressed as farmers and women walked onto the stage in unison to the rhythm of hand drums and bamboo sticks. They imitated harvesting movements and arranged rice ears around the stage.

Then the four men and four women sat in the four corners, symbolizing the positions of harvest in the eight wildernesses.

The Autumnal Equinox Festival is the "Field Planting Festival" corresponding to the Spring Equinox. It is a festival to thank the gods for blessing the harvest, so rice ears are arranged and eight seats are arranged in preparation for the shrine maidens' dance.

Another young girl, Mikamiko, dressed as a shrine maiden, began to bow and wait at a small path below the stage, clearing a path to the stage.

The sounds of hand drums and bamboo knots stopped and were replaced by Kagura flutes.

Unlike the low-pitched melody of the shakuhachi used to pray for rain or a good harvest, the thanksgiving festival usually has a lighter and more cheerful tone, so the background music used is mainly Kagura flute, with occasional Taiko drums.

To the sound of traditional music, a shrine maiden slowly walked along the avenue in the spotlight of the crowd.

The shrine maiden wears a Chihayashiro upper body, a red hakama, a lining of a skin-colored undergarment, white tabi and red-stitched straw sandals on her feet, and her long black hair is tied into a ponytail with white sandalwood paper.

She held the Kagura bell in her hand, and the bell did not ring at all as she walked steadily, showing her very solid footwork skills.

Oda Nobuo looked at the shrine maiden from afar and felt that she was much more beautiful than he had imagined.

In my impression, women in traditional Japanese ceremonies are not that pretty. Unexpectedly, this shrine maiden has delicate features, beautiful eyebrows and eyes, and she is not very old, probably around 25 years old at most.

The shrine maiden walked to the center of the stage, at the center of the altar, holding a Kagura bell, and slowly and gracefully turned to the eight places where the farmers and farm women were sitting, gently shaking it to produce pleasant sounds.

Ding-ding-ding-ding…………

This symbolizes that as a messenger of God, he blesses all people in the world.

Oda Shingo noticed that the Japanese people's respect for tradition was very obvious. Everyone in the audience put down their mobile phones, and even some professional photographers turned off their cameras and stood in a solemn manner.

As far as I can remember, it is impolite to take photos of the shrine maiden ceremony. Soon, two shrine maidens came and bowed their heads to present the feather robe and banner.

One helped put on the feather robe, the other took away the Kagura bell, and then they retreated respectfully together.

The banner is a ritual item used by shrine maidens, which looks like a staff with two whips with many white paper pieces attached to them.

The witch held a banner in her hand and stood there for a long time without moving.

Everyone waited quietly.

As a chime sounded, the witch raised her hands very slowly and began the witch dance.

Her waist is extremely thin, but her breasts and hips are beautifully streamlined and enlarged. She has the kind of gourd-shaped figure that men dream of, but not as exaggerated as that of Westerners.

No wonder she was chosen as a shrine maiden, Oda Nobuo thought. She was dressed like a young shrine maiden who had not yet married. I wonder who would be able to enjoy such a good figure as a husband?

"Does it look good?" Namikaze Youhe suddenly asked in a low voice.

"Is this Kagura dance?" Oda Shingo did not answer, but asked in a low voice.

Namikaze Youzuru didn't ask any more questions. He looked at it carefully for a while before nodding and confirming in a low voice: "It's the Toyokei Dance from the Kagura Dance."

The witch's dance started out slowly, then gradually became faster, and in the end she even started to spin her body rapidly on the spot.

This is a very demanding task. If you stumble accidentally, it will be considered a performance mistake.

But this shrine maiden has excellent skills in toes and arches. As her body rotates, her feet in white tabi are extremely steady.

The shrine maiden with a great figure danced quickly, and the feathered robe on the outside fluttered like a fairy's ribbon, which was very beautiful.

The music became more and more urgent, and finally stopped abruptly after a whistle.

The priestess's graceful figure, which was originally spinning rapidly, came to an abrupt halt. She posed in a posture of bowing with her head down to express her gratitude to the gods, while at the same time she knelt on one knee with her hands stretched out behind her back to end the dance.

Clap, clap, clap—the whole audience burst into applause.

Oda Shingo couldn't help but applaud.

But at this moment, he noticed that because of the witch's bent-over posture, the back of her shoulders and neck were also pink and white, which looked very familiar.

"Huh? Is it the previous oiran?" Oda Nobuo was stunned.

The three girls, Namikaze Youhe, looked at him in surprise.

"I'm just guessing. I don't know if it's accurate." Oda Shingo's face turned red.

It’s hard to explain that it was guessed based on skin color.

Namikaze Yuzuru and Mikami Yuko didn't say anything, but Fujido Kaoru snorted.

The following program was no longer a traditional performance, but manzai (Japanese crosstalk) and a tourism and cultural exchange speech, which was not what Oda Shingo was interested in.

The ceremony is not over yet, and it is difficult to leave. I guess I have to wait until the senior officials of the Department of Culture and the Department of Tourism give a concluding speech of thanks and blessings.

Oda Shingo began to discuss the production of the comics with Namikaze Yukaku: "For the next plot of "GANTZ", I want to continue to speed up the pace. The protagonist quickly completes the resurrection mission and dies, and the Battle of Osaka starts as soon as possible..."

He was talking for a while and he could vaguely hear a young woman whispering "Sorry to bother you".

It seemed that someone walked through the seats and sat in the empty seat in the second row.

Suddenly, Oda Nobuo caught a glimpse of the pink and white area again from the corner of his eye.

He looked over and saw that a girl had indeed just sat down in the empty seat in front of him.

She was dressed in Japanese girl's casual clothes, and her pink neck was particularly eye-catching in the sun.

Is this the woman who played the role of the oiran and the miko? Oda Shingo didn't recognize her face, but the pale neck he caught a glimpse of left a deep impression on him.

At this moment, the young woman turned around and her eyes met Oda Nobuo's.

"Hello, Mr. Oda Shingo. The ceremony is still going on. Rumiko Kurokawa, please forgive me for not being able to meet you." The woman turned sideways and bowed slightly in her seat.

Seeing that Oda Shingo was a little dazed, the young woman took out an ornament and gestured to her mouth.

It is a pair of traditional Japanese dentures with blackened teeth.

Kurokawa Rumiko smiled brightly: "Oda-kun, this is the second time we meet..."

(End of this chapter)