F E S T I V A L ／ FEST-215

Lake Shikaribetsu White Snake Princess Festival (Hakujahime Matsuri)

然別湖白蛇姫まつりしかりべつこしらへびひめまつり

The Lake Shikaribetsu White Snake Princess Festival is a summer festival held on the evening of the first Saturday of July each year on the shore of Lake Shikaribetsu (Shikaribetsu Lakeside Hot Spring), a mystical lake within Daisetsuzan National Park near the center of Hokkaido, organized by the Shikaoi Town Tourism Association. It is based on the 'White Snake Princess Tale,' created from Ainu legend, in which a goddess and her messenger white snake save a village struck by crop failure; the story is reenacted as dance on a special lakeside stage. The highlight is the 'parent-and-child snake dance,' in which a parent snake roughly 13 m long and a child snake roughly 8 m long weave across each other, with 14 performers in all — 8 for the parent, 6 for the child — undulating the snakes' heads and bodies with handheld poles. Ainu people perform the kamuy-nomi (ritual to the gods) and play the mukkuri (mouth harp), and against the night-mist-shrouded lake, the white snakes and the White Snake Princess lit up in the dark create a fantastical scene. Admission is free.