Dashi Miniature 1/20 Ogaki Festival Hotei (Hotei) Yatai Length: Approximately 28 cm Width: Approximately 13 cm Height: Approximately 27 cm All handmade Made of wood Hotei (Hotei) Yatai [Nakamachi] This yatai features three-tiered railings. On the first tier, a Hotei doll is placed. On the second tier, a Karako doll dances with a fan in its right hand, approaching a platform (榻) on the right front corner of the yatai. It then places its left hand on the platform, does a handstand, and opens the fan in its right hand to perform a spinning dance. This "Hotei Yatai" is the only one with this type of mechanical performance. On the third tier, a Karako doll used to dance to the accompaniment of music. However, due to the prohibition of the mixing of Shinto and Buddhist deities during the Meiji Restoration, the Hotei doll was removed and replaced with a sacred branch of the sakaki tree. The other dolls were also remodeled into Kamo Myojin and attendant Shinto priests, and the name was changed to "Asahi Yatai." However, it was destroyed in the Nobi Earthquake of 1891. It was rebuilt as the "Hotei Yatai" again in 1902. In 1945, during the war, this Hotei Yatai was also destroyed by fire, but it was restored in plain wood for the first time in 67 years in 2012. After that, construction work on lacquer, decorative metal fittings, etc., was carried out over a period of three years, and it was completed in March 2023. The dolls are the same as before the restoration: the "Hotei doll," the "handstand Karako doll," and the "fan-wielding Karako doll," created by Mr. Daishu Goto, a local Ogaki mechanical doll craftsman.