Tamaseseri / wooden ball catching festival

Tamaseseri, a lively New Year’s Festival held on January, at Hakozaki Shrine in Fukuoka-city,

including a traditional form of fortune-telling.
Several hundred men wearing lion cloths compete on piggy-back in two teams, the “sea” team

and the “land” team team, for possession of a wooden ball.

If the sea team wins, a bountiful fishing catch is predicted for the year; if the land team wins

a rich harvest is predicted.