The largest number of drums in the world. The Morioka Sansa Odori holds a Guinness record for the most Japanese drums played at once, and in early August the city's main avenue fills with dancers and drummers until the pavement itself seems to beat. Behind it lies a legend of a demon's handprint. A demon had been troubling the people, the story goes, until a god caught it and made it promise never to return, pressing its hand to a rock as proof—the rock that gave Iwate, and Morioka, their names. The relieved villagers danced for joy, and that dancing became the Sansa. The drums are carried, struck while walking, while leaping, hundreds of them shaking the ground. The sound reaches your organs; stand and watch and you feel your own pulse drifting into time with the drums. For three days of summer, Morioka is filled to its edges with the sound.