F E S T I V A L ／ FEST-069

Awashima-Konsei Festival (Union of the Female and Male Deities)

あわしま・こんせい祭あわしま・こんせいまつり

In the heart of Morioka City — at a specially designated ceremonial ground within Kōdōji Park, on the site of the former Morioka Castle — a festival combining two ancient currents of Japanese vernacular religious practice is conducted annually in late July. The Awashima-Konsei Festival is organized by the Awashima-Konsei Festival Promotion Society, based at Morioka Kaiun Shrine. Its ceremonial center is the Maguai no Gi — the "rite of sacred union" — in which the o-mikoshi (portable shrine palanquins) of Awashima-sama, a female deity associated with women's health, childbirth, and matrimonial blessing, and Konsei-sama, a male deity embodying phallic generative force particularly venerated across the Tōhoku region, are ceremonially brought together. The union of these two deities is understood as a prayer for the continuity of life, the blessing of descendants, the formation of harmonious unions, and the peace and prosperity of the community. The festival program includes the installation of the palanquins, an opening ceremony, a dedication of the Takino-shita Sansa dance — a form associated with Morioka's traditional performing arts — the main religious rite, the Maguai no Gi procession, a community peace-and-prosperity prayer, and a communal closing banquet.