F E S T I V A L ／ FEST-179

Tsubaki Matsuri (Camellia Festival) at Iyozuhiko Shrine

伊予豆比古命神社 椿まつりいよずひこのみことじんじゃ つばきまつり

The Tsubaki Matsuri is a spring festival held over three days of the lunar New Year (the 7th to 9th of the first lunar month) at Iyozuhiko Shrine in Matsuyama, Ehime—popularly called Tsubaki Shrine, or affectionately "Otsubaki-san." Held near the start of spring, it is known as "the festival that calls spring to the Iyo region" and draws roughly 500,000 worshippers, making it one of Shikoku's largest festivals. The shrine, recorded in the Engishiki and once a prefectural shrine (now a Beppyo shrine), traces its founding by tradition to ancient times; one of its enshrined deities, Ehimenomikoto, is said to be the origin of the prefecture's name "Ehime." The festival's core rites fall on the middle day (24 February in 2026): a morning grand rite followed by the evening "secret procession," in which the deity's palanquin is carried quietly while households along the route burn New Year decorations to greet it. Its most distinctive custom is the "money-lending rite," in which visitors borrow a small "guardian coin" from the shrine—no name or address required—and return double the amount the following year, a practice tied to prayers for prosperity in business. Hundreds of stalls line the approach as a lucky-charm market deeply rooted in local life.