F E S T I V A L ／ FEST-196

Kunda Festival (Fighting Mikoshi of Sumiyoshi Shrine)

栗田祭（住吉神社の喧嘩神輿）くんだまつり（すみよしじんじゃのけんかみこし）

The Kunda Festival is the collective name for the autumn festivals held throughout the villages of the Kunda Peninsula in eastern Miyazu City, the most famous element of which is the "fighting mikoshi" (kenka-mikoshi) dedicated at Sumiyoshi Shrine in Kamitsuji. Wearing short, knee-length kimono, parishioners from the Kamitsuji and Kodera districts shoulder their portable shrines and clash violently, the rule being that the side that seizes the front carrying-pole of the opposing mikoshi and raises it above shoulder height is the winner. The festival is said to have originated as a way to channel the constant disputes between districts over fishing grounds into a single annual contest of fighting spirit. The day begins with a lion dance dedicated house to house at dawn; after the fighting mikoshi comes a naorai in which both districts share sake in reconciliation, followed by a tachi-furi sword-waving dance said to have been transmitted from the Aoi Festival of nearby Kono Shrine. The coexistence of violence and reconciliation within a single day vividly reveals the festival's function as a mechanism for maintaining communal order.