F E S T I V A L ／ FEST-144
weird
Mukonage & Suminuri (Groom-Tossing & Soot-Smearing)
むこ投げ・すみ塗りむこなげ・すみぬり
D A T E2026-01-15
A Lesser-New-Year rite transmitted for over 300 years at Matsunoyama Onsen in Tōkamachi City, Niigata. The new grooms who brought wives into the Matsunoyama district in the previous year are tossed by the district's young men from a high point of the Yakushidō grounds down a snow slope ('mukonage'), after which everyone present smears each other's faces with ink made from snow and the ash of the sai-no-kami bonfire ('suminuri'). The reproachful sport of the district losing its daughters to outside grooms is fused with the ash-smearing prayer for freedom from illness.
N O P H O T O
H I G H L I G H T S
Highlights
- 01Lesser-New-Year rite transmitted for ~300 years
- 02Previous year's new grooms tossed down a snow slope
- 03Ink of sai-no-kami ash and snow smeared on faces
- 04Spectators and participants alike receive the soot
- 05A snow rite unique to heavy-snow Matsunoyama Onsen
D E E P D I V E