F E S T I V A L ／ FEST-163

Ueno Tenjin Festival — Danjiri Float Procession (Ueno Tenjin-sai no Danjiri Gyōji)

上野天神祭のだんじり行事うえのてんじんさいのだんじりぎょうじ

The Ueno Tenjin Festival is the principal autumn festival of Sugawara Jinja (Ueno Tenjin-gū) in Iga City, Mie Prefecture. Its most distinctive element is a procession of nine danjiri (elaborately decorated festival floats) accompanied by a column of more than one hundred demons (hyōrotsuki-oni) wearing nō and kyōgen masks, which winds through the former castle-town streets over three days. The festival was re-established as a formal Tenjin ritual in Manbun 3 (1660) and was first permitted to process within the castle precinct in Kanbun 2 (1662); the demon procession is traceable to a record of the Sankikai's "En no Gyōja column" around Genroku 3 (1690), with the "Chinzei Hachirō Tametomo column" added around Kansei 10 (1798), establishing the festival's present form. The festival was designated a Nationally Designated Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property in 2002 and inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2016 (Heisei 28).