You don’t get much more inclusive than that.

Beauty pageants aren’t quite as big as they used to be, with a lot of major organizers moving on to other things like becoming president of the USA. But they still go on, especially in more rural areas such as Gifu Prefecture, where the annual Nohime Gran Prix is held.

“Nohime” means “Lady of No” referring to a historical region of No, where she is said to have come from. Little is known about her for certain other than she was married to the famed daimyo Oda Nobunaga around the time that he gave the area of Gifu its current name.

▼ This famous print shows Nohime (among the background crowd, dressed in white) fighting alongside her husband prior to his death in the Honno-ji Incident, but there is no evidence she was actually there.

The Nohime Festival was established in 2019 as a feminine answer to the Gifu Nobunaga Festival and Dosan Festival, both of which were in honor of men. The idea was to make a festival where women could shine, but along the way it was decided to open it up to celebrate everyone and everything.

One of the main events of the Nohime Festival is the Nohime Gran Prix, which isn’t a beauty pageant in the strictest sense of the term, but very similar in that the winners become spokespeople for the event during that year. The rules for entry state that it is open to “anyone who wants to promote Gifu Prefecture regardless of age, gender, or nationality (biological status is not an issue).”

That parenthesized part seems to just point out that biological sex is irrelevant, but it actually goes a lot further than that judging by this year’s winners. In first place, we have Yui Takenaka. Her runners-up are Shion Sakuragi, Hanako Nawa, and a pair of corgies Mira and Ramu. The winners can all be seen in a photo tweeted by festival committee chairperson Rui Kawakami, who also points out that a parrot had won in a previous year.

The inclusion of not only other genders but even animals got a lot of attention on social media, with several people asking where the Nohime Gran Prix drew a line and Chairperson Rui Kawakami was more than happy to answer.

Question: “Since it’s not a living thing, a stuffed toy can’t enter, right?”
Kawakami: “As long as they have a love for Gifu, it’s OK!”

Question: “Can a strawberry run too?”
Kawakami: “Of course they can apply! It doesn’t matter what kind of organism it is.”

Question: “Even VTubers can do it?”
Kawakami: “Of course, that’s OK! We haven’t received applications from any yet, but we’d be happy to hear from you someday.”

Question: “These are wonderful qualifications to apply. By the way… might AI be OK?”
Kawakami: “AI!!! Of course, it’s OK! We welcome AI contestants, but none have applied yet. We look forward to seeing you next time.”

It certainly appears that anything goes when it comes to the Nohime Gran Prix as long as entrants are all about promoting the festival and Gifu Prefecture in general. The response in online comments has been largely positive, saying that this is the way pageants should be.

“It’s diversity but it doesn’t feel heavy-handed. It seems so peaceful.”
“That group photo of the winners has a great atmosphere.”
“It’s like an open weight class beauty pageant.”
“This is all over the place and I love it.”
“It’s a pageant of cute things, whatever they may be.”
“This is what diversity should be, not forcing it but embracing it.”
“With all the negative news, this is really nice to hear.”
“I don’t really get it, but I think it’s really good.”

This year’s winners were already declared in March, so we’ll have to wait until next year to see who or what enters the next Nohime Gran Prix. On the bright side, this gives everyone a chance to come up with interesting entries alongside humans. I’m actually not a fan of eating them so much but always found strawberries to be rather aesthetically pleasing fruits and well overdue to win one of these things.

Source: Twitter/@rui_hitohito, Noruhime Matsuri, My Game News Flash
Top image: Nohime Matsuri
Insert image: Wikipedia/Nobukazu Yosai
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