F E S T I V A L ／ FEST-202

Toko Yasaka Shrine Festival: Bull-Riding (Ushi-nori) and Kumo-mai

東湖八坂神社祭 牛乗り・くも舞とうこやさかじんじゃさい うしのり・くもまい

The "bull-riding (ushi-nori) and kumo-mai" of the Toko Yasaka Shrine Festival is a sacred rite performed on both banks of the Funakoshi Channel — in the Tenno district of Katagami City and the Funakoshi district of Oga City — and forms the core of the nationally designated Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property known as the "Tonin ritual." Its two highlights are the "bull-riding," in which a sacred officiant playing Susanoo-no-Mikoto enters a state of divine possession, mounts a black sacred bull and is led by parishioners toward the channel, and the "kumo-mai" (a butterfly dance), in which a performer playing Yamata-no-Orochi, robed in crimson, dances aboard a boat on the Funakoshi side. Together they re-enact, once a year and across two districts divided by water, the myth of Susanoo's slaying of the eight-headed serpent. The rite is distinctive for the rare act of a human riding the sacred bull and for staging the myth upon the local geography; it is said to have formed through the fusion of the water-deity beliefs of farmers and fishermen around Lake Hachiro. Its origins are traced to the late Heian period, and it was designated a national Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property in January 1986 (Showa 61).