F E S T I V A L ／ FEST-188

Shanshan-uma Dōchū (Bell Horse Bridal Pilgrimage Procession)

シャンシャン馬道中しゃんしゃんうまどうちゅう

Shanshan-uma is a folk reenactment at Udo-jingū Shrine on Miyazaki Prefecture's Nichinan coast that revives a vanished newlywed pilgrimage. From the mid-Edo period until the close of the Meiji era, a newly married couple would dress the bride in formal kimono and seat her atop a horse decked out in vivid vermilion ornamental saddlery, tassels, and neck bells, while the groom led the animal on foot from the Aoshima area over the rugged coastal trail known as the 'Seven Bays and Seven Passes' (nanaura-nanatōge) to worship at Udo-jingū, a shrine revered for safe childbirth and matchmaking. The name 'shanshan' is onomatopoeia for the jingling of the bells hung at the horse's neck, and the spectacle itself — bride in wedding finery atop a bell-bedecked, tasseled horse — is the visual heart of the event. Though the custom died out with modernization, today the procession is recreated as a tourism event each spring, staged alongside the finals of the Shanshan-uma Dōchū-uta National Folk-Song Competition during Udo-jingū's spring grand festival, bringing the old bridal pilgrimage briefly back to life.