Kurokawa Noh Theater
Dates: February, March, May, November (Kasuga Shrine is the main one, held 8 times a year)
Locations: Kasuga Shrine, Hagi Kuroyama Shrine, Shonai Shrine, etc.
The most important of these festivals is the "Ongi Matsuri (Festival of the King)", which is held in February, and which begins in the early morning hours of Feb. 1 to welcome the arrival of the Kasuga shrine's god, Ongi. --- "O_" arrives. In the evening, children perform the "Treading on Earth" event, which is the beginning of the Kurokawa Noh Theater. After the performance of the "Shisanban" dance (a dance performed by an old man who symbolizes the deity), which is the most important of the ancient Noh plays, five Noh plays and four kyogen performances are performed throughout the night, and the Noh plays are performed in the presence of the deity on February 2, when the deity returns to Kasuga Shrine. In addition, a variety of rituals are held at the shrine until late in the evening.
Godo Matsuri
Date: February 6
Location: Shinkura Shrine, Shingu City, Wakayama Prefecture
Godo Matsuri is a manly fire festival in the Kumano area, and is on the World Heritage List. The main attraction of the festival is the sight of 2,000 men in white, wrapped in thick grass ropes and carrying burning torches, racing down the dizzyingly steep 538 steps of Mount Kagura as if a river of fire were flowing downward.
Sapporo Snow Festival
Date: 7 days in the second week of February
Venues: Sapporo Odori Venue, Hosono (Susukino Venue), Satorando Venue (Chuo-ku and Higashi-ku, Sapporo City)
The three venues in Sapporo are filled with snowy shinobashi (snow sculptures), and are enjoyed by 2 million people every year, including foreign tourists. The main venue, Odori Park, is located right in the center of the city and is a 1.5-kilometer-long museum of snow. Kokusai Plaza, located at 11 chome in Odori West, is also the venue for the International Snow Competition, in which dozens of teams from all over the world participate every year. Since the venue is originally a park, you can visit it anytime you like. When night falls, the snow is beautifully illuminated (until 22:00), and the ice sculptures on display at the "Hosono Hall," which is famous for its night view, give you a dreamy feeling, as you can enjoy the whimsical creations of Hokkaido specialties such as crab, cuttlefish, and salmon, which are embedded in the ice sculptures.
Setsubun Banzai Festival
Date: February 3
Place: Kasuga Taisha Shrine, Nara (Kasugino-machi, Nara City)
The festival is called "Setsubun Banzai," and the word "Setsubun" refers to the day before the beginning of spring. Kasuga Taisha Shrine in Nara lights up more than 3,000 lanterns in the temple grounds from 18:30 to 21:00 on this day and for three days on August 14 and 15, respectively. This event has been going on since 800 years ago, and some of the lanterns in the grounds were dedicated to the samurai (warriors) of the Warring States period, while most of the rest came from ordinary citizens. The flickering light of the candles is a mysterious reminder of a time when electricity was not available. The lanterns, the shadows of the lamps in the river, and the red color of the shrine's building are harmonious and beautiful.
The lanterns include stone lanterns and hanging lanterns, which are hung in the corridors. The stone lanterns are pasted with Japanese paper with prayers written on them, and candles are lit by the participants themselves; the hanging lanterns on the corridors come in different shapes and variations. It seems to imply that there are as many lanterns as there are prayers. The thought that in the past, these lanterns were illuminated every night also calls to mind.
Yokote Yukiya Festival
Date: February 15-16
Location: Akita Yokote City Hall and other places
The houses dug out of the snowy mountains are called "yukiya" (or "kamakura" in Japanese). KAMAKURA". Every year in Yokote City, more than 100 kamakuras and countless miniature kamakuras are built. The lights from the white igloos shine in the stillness of the night, creating a unique atmosphere. It is said that the festival originated from the ceremony of burning the decorations of the first month of the lunar year and dedicating them to the gods and Buddha, and the ceremony of chasing away the crows that were destroying the fields by the children, which has a history of 400 years. "Inside the Yukiya, there is an altar where children offer sake and rice cakes to the god of water in order to ask for good water. The children in the yukiya greet passers-by in Akita dialect, saying, "Please come into the yukiya," and "Please taste the sweet wine," and they enjoy chatting with each other while eating rice cakes and snacks inside the yukiya. It is clear that yukiya were originally intended to invite people to enter, but now there are countless small, lighted yukiya on the campus of Yokote Minami Elementary School in the city, making them particularly romantic.
Saidaidaiji Kaiyo Naked Festival
Date: The third Saturday in February
Location: Inside Saidaiji Temple in Okayama City
The Saidaiji Kaiyo Naked Festival is an exciting and bizarre festival held at midnight, where shirtless men compete for a lucky prize.
One of the three strangest festivals in Japan, 9,000 topless men (with only a crotch cloth) compete for two lucky objects called "hoki," which are 4 centimeters in diameter and 20 centimeters in length, and which are thrown by the master of the temple from a 4-meter-high window. If anyone can be lucky to snatch the "treasure wood", and inserted in the rice full of rice on the rice liter, then he is the year's "blessed man", you can get a year of happiness. The other lucky item is a bundle of willow wood pieces, which is thrown out in groups of 100, but even so, it is not easy to snatch it.
The festival is said to have begun 500 years ago when devotees snatched a paper talisman called "Niuwang," which the abbot distributed to visitors. The paper talisman was a proof that the abbot had finished his practice from the first month of the lunar year. Because the person who received it had a lot of good luck, more and more people wanted to get it. But the paper was easily torn, so it was later changed to a wooden piece.
Hachinohe Harvest Festival
Date: February 17-20
Place: Hachinohe City, Aomori Prefecture
The Hachinohe Harvest Festival is a festival in which people dance all over the city in anticipation of a good harvest. It is a dance that announces the arrival of spring in the northern part of the country and shows the scenes of farming operations.
The dancers, called "taio," and 10 to 30 other people, including flute players, drummers, gong players, and singers, parade through the city. Every year, more than 30 groups, including children's groups, participate in the parade in colorful costumes. In olden times, people danced with "_(Enburi", a farming tool, during a celebration to pray for a good harvest, thus giving rise to the Japanese pronunciation of "Enburi" for Harvest Festival.
What about these events? Are there any favorites? If so, plan a trip to Japan this spring to enjoy these events and the cherry blossoms!