F E S T I V A L ／ FEST-044

Kasuga Wakamiya On-matsuri (The Unbroken Festival)

春日若宮おん祭かすがわかみやおんまつり

The Kasuga Wakamiya On-matsuri has been performed every year since 1136 CE — 890-plus consecutive years — which qualifies it as one of the longest continuously held festival events in human history. The ceremony's theological purpose is to comfort the Wakamiya deity (a child-deity of Kasuga Taisha, Japan's great Fujiwara clan shrine) through performances of the arts — ancient court music, Noh theater, Kagura dance, Sarugaku comedy — that the deity is understood to enjoy. The procession on December 17th deploys hundreds of participants in period costumes from the Heian through Edo eras in a sequence that constitutes a full historical panorama of Japanese court and warrior dress. The ceremony's climax, the Otabisho rite conducted at the temporary shrine in the Shiba area from 2:00 PM, is the deity's own performance review of the day's offerings. A third ceremony — the Ochakai (tea ceremony) — and the midnight Senko-no-Gi (ceremonial lighting) round out an event whose full duration spans four days.