F E S T I V A L ／ FEST-107

Hōran-enya (Matsue Jōzan Inari Shrine Shikinen Shinkōsai)

ホーランエンヤ（松江城山稲荷神社式年神幸祭）ほうらんえんや

Held only once each decade, the Hōran-enya is the largest boat ritual in Japan and one of the three great maritime festivals of the nation, alongside the Kangen-sai of Itsukushima and the Tenjin Matsuri of Osaka. The kami of Matsue Jōzan Inari Shrine is transferred to a sacred barge and rowed in procession with about one hundred attendant vessels along the Ohashi and Iu rivers to the subsidiary shrine of Atakaya, nine days later returning to the castle town. Each stage of the festival — the outbound procession, the middle-day rites, and the homeward return — is accompanied by sword and oar dances performed aboard the kaidenma rowing boats. Dating from 1648, when the second lord of the Matsue domain transferred the kami of his castle's tutelary Inari shrine, the festival's decennial cycle was formalized in the late nineteenth century and has been maintained, with wartime interruptions, ever since. Because the next observance falls in 2029, this entry is provided as an advance notice.