F E S T I V A L ／ FEST-238
Ueki Shrine Gion Festival
植木神社祇園祭うえきじんじゃぎおんさい
Held on the last Saturday and Sunday of July at Ueki Shrine in the Hirata district of Iga City, this is said to be the oldest and largest summer festival in the Iga region. Believed to have begun around 400 years ago to pray for the warding-off of epidemics, it is designated an Intangible Folk Cultural Property of Mie Prefecture. Its greatest spectacle is the 'kuneri mikoshi' procession: sixteen young men carry a portable shrine that, to shouts of 'Chōsayō,' is tilted fully 90 degrees to left and right and made to dance alternately — a manner of carrying said to be unlike any other. Two mikoshi and three floats (danjiri) parade along the old highway to the sounds of drums and music, joined by an elegant procession of 'Gion flowers.' The mikoshi and floats are all said to be over 400 years old. Across a temporal structure of the eve rite (Saturday night), the senkō-sai (predawn Sunday), and the kankō-sai (Sunday afternoon), the festival unfolds as a long rite stretching from night into the predawn hours and on into daytime.
H I G H L I G H T S
Highlights
- 01The distinctive 'kuneri mikoshi,' in which sixteen young men tilt the portable shrine 90 degrees to left and right and make it dance alternately
- 02The highway procession of two mikoshi and three floats (danjiri), all said to be over 400 years old
- 03A long ritual structure spanning night, predawn, and daytime — from the Saturday-night eve rite to the predawn senkō-sai and afternoon kankō-sai of the main day
D E E P D I V E