Japanese festivals, also known as matsuri (祭り), are huge cultural attractions for both locals and tourists alike. While many of them are of Shinto origin, food festivals and scenic festivals — such as the Sapporo Snow Festival — are especially popular.
In my three-part “Lesser-Known Festival” series, I’ve taken a look at some of the Japanese festivals not as well known outside of Japan. In the third and final part, I’ll cover some of the most dangerous festivals in Japan: the Log-Riding Festival, where people risk life and limb to transport sacred pillars; the Stick Beating Festival, where a battle reenactment decides the fate of rice; and the Dosojin Fire Festival, where unlucky men protect a wooden shrine from torch-wielding invaders.
Part 1: Scary Festivals Edition
Part 2: Let Loose Festivals Edition
Log-Riding Festival
The Practice
Every six (traditionally reckoned as seven) years, during the springtime, the Suwa area of Nagano holds the Onbashira Festival (御柱祭). While some people know it as the Log-Riding Festival, it is merely one component of a lively and precarious celebration.
Spanning over several months, the Onbashira Festival is divided into two main ceremonies–yamadashi and satobiki. After selecting and cutting 16 moni fir trees from a forest near Mt. Okoya, participants perform a Shinto ceremony and attach ropes to the logs. Once attached, some young men “prove their bravery” by riding the log as it is dragged down slopes and hills.
The logs/pillars, also known as onbashira for which the festival is named, are also dragged through rivers and streets while the men chant and onlookers trail behind them.
In the satobiki, which takes place a month later, participants take the pillars to four different shrines — their final resting place. Each shrine — Honmiya, Maemiya, Harumiya, and Akimiya – -receives four pillars, one on each corner. After the pillars are erected with ropes, the pillars stand there for seven years until the next festival.
The Legend
The Onbashira Festival has been celebrated for 1200 years. Legend has it that the first edifices of the shrine were put together in 1356; the war god Suwa Daimyojin is enshrined here.
Originally, the local Shinto priests supervised the festival, but upon the Meiji Restoration and the advent of State Shinto, the government took over the proceedings at the Upper and Lower Shrine sites. To this day, people who procure the pillars are selected randomly by the local government.
However, the more daring aspects of the Onbashira festival, like the log-riding, wouldn’t take place until 1914–Nakamura Tomoya, who was 21 at the time, was the first person to ride a pillar down a slope. His bravery made him a living legend. In 1950, women were allowed to participate in the festival for the first time.
An Experience
The Onbashira Festival is considered to be the most dangerous festival in Japan, if not the world. Due to the fact that the pillar transport includes slopes, rivers, and open traffic, casualties can be quite common. Some of the more notable accidents include the deaths of Masuzawa Noritoshi and Hirata Kazuya in 2010. They passed away after falling from a height of 10 meters after a guide wire broke. Drownings are also common.
Most attendees view these deaths as an honorable death, since they occurred during an important festival. Moreover, the average attendee will most like not have to worry about being in danger. Unlike most festivals, this one only happens every six or seven years. The locals use it primarily as an opportunity for making memories and reconnecting.
Stick Beating Festival
The Practice
Every February 15th, in the mountainous town of Misato, Akita, people gather for the Takeuchi Matsuri (竹うち祭り), also known as the Stick Beating Festival, Bamboo Beating Festival, or Bamboo Battle Festival. In this event, local male participants are split up into two teams, North and South. Warmed by sake and armed with 20-foot (six-meter) bamboo poles, the two teams duke it out to determine the fate of rice for the year.
In this three-round bout, the North and South teams brutally strike each other with said bamboo poles. It’s quite common for both sides to sustain injuries during the heat of battle. By the final round, the bamboo battle is literally heated, as a bonfire is lit in the middle of the arena. This gives each team the courage to do some major damage.
According to legend, if the North team win, the new year will bring a bountiful rice harvest. Conversely, if the South team wins, the price of rice will go up in the new year.
The Legend
Residents of the Tohoku region has celebrated the Stick Beating Festival for over 700 years. While the ceremonial brawl takes place on February 15th, it’s just one part of a larger, four-day celebration known as the Rokugo no Kamakura Festival. Generally speaking, the event is centered around “exorcising the devil” and “fortune-telling”.
There are three main rituals in the Kamakura Festival, before the Bamboo Battle: the Toshigoi for a bountiful harvest, the Akumabarai to ward off demons, and the Toshi-uranai to “predict the year’s fortune”. After the Bamboo Battle, the participants light up a bonfire of broken bamboo.
An Experience
In a first hand account by Yamamoto Tetsuya, there is a peaceful moment before the battle begins. Participants decorate bamboo poles with New Year’s wishes and erected in the fresh snow. The decorations are colorful and filled with calligraphy. Eventually, more bamboo–this time for the upcoming battle–is brought to Suwa Shrine and prepared.
The battle usually begins around 8:00 pm, well after the sun has set. Similar to the Cursing Festival, there are rules of engagement:
- The bamboo must be swung straight down.
- It cannot be swung like a bat, nor used as a javelin.
- You can also fight bare-handed if necessary.
- People who are not equipped with appropriate uniforms, helmets or special stickers cannot enter the venue.
- The results of the battle are subjective, i.e. there might not be a clear-cut winner.
Admission to the Rokugo no Kamakura/Bamboo Battle Festival is free. The event is accessible via the JR Ouu-Honsen Line at Iizume Station.
Dosojin Fire Festival
The Practice
Every January 15th, in the small Nagano village of Nozawa Onsen, the Dosojin Fire Festival (道祖神祭り) takes place. In this festival, male villagers “unluckily” aged 25 and 42 engage in a rite of passage involving a fire battle. While people from all over can witness this mandatory ritual, only men from the village can participate.
The participants, also known as the yakudoshi, are selected for the sake of “spiritual cleansing”. Everyone is given sake beforehand. At 8:30 pm, a bonfire is lit, and festival organizers attack a handmade shrine with torches, also known as a shadan. It is the yakudoshi‘s job to protect the shrine from burning down. The 25-year-olds get the brunt of the attacks on the lower tier, while the 42-year-olds sit on top.
After an hour or so, the shadan is successfully set aflame, and it’s left to burn for the rest of the evening.
The Legend
The Dosojin Fire Festival is a Shinto-based event dating back to 1863. Like most late winter festival, the main purpose is to pray for good fortune and a bountiful harvest. However, there is an additional purpose: to celebrate boys born in the previous year. As previously stated, the Fire Festival is a mandatory rite of passage for all male residents of Nozawa Onsen.
A group of kami known as dosojin lie at the center of this event. In the Shinto pantheon, dosojin are guardian spirits who protect travelers, pilgrims, and anyone else who is in a “transitional” place in life. They are usually enshrined in roadside Shinto shrines, or hokora.
Nozawa Onsen’s dosojin are enshrined in two wooden poles across from the “grassy glade” where the festival takes place. These poles are painted as a human couple who take on all the prayers and wishes of the villagers. The yakudoshi‘s job is to prevent the dosojin from the torch-bearing invaders, and the fire they bring will cleanse the misfortune of the 25 and 42-year-old men.
An Experience
Both passionate and dangerous, the Dosojin Fire Festival is considered to be a cultural and religious event. Precautions for both attendees and the yakudoshi are taken; most notably, there are 25-year-olds who will not drink sake beforehand in order to keep their comrades safe. While attendees also drink beforehand, they are advised to stay away from roped-off areas and not to cause a commotion.
Throughout the festival, there is a song that is sung by all who are in attendance, which serves as the main prayer to the dosojin. In this hymn, people pray for a prosperous new year, marital bliss and enduring friendship. The handmade shadan that the yakudoshi burn at the end is a sacrifice to the gods, and a symbol of the small town’s success in putting this momentous annual event together.
