Matsuri are shrine festivals, and their emotional register surprises people who expect solemnity: the kami is transferred into a portable shrine (mikoshi) and carried through the neighborhood by shouting, jostling, often drunk crowds, deliberately shaken so the deity enjoys the ride. The theory is that the kami tours its territory and the community renews its bond by exertion and noise. Every neighborhood has one, and they are the strongest surviving mechanism of local social cohesion in urban Japan.