F E S T I V A L ／ FEST-247

Kinefuri Festival (Kinefuri Hanauma Festival) at Abiromi Shrine

安弘見神社 杵振り祭（杵振り花馬祭り）あびろみじんじゃ きねふりまつり

Held at Abiromi Shrine in the Hirukawa district of Nakatsugawa, Gifu, on the Sunday nearest April 16, this spring festival centers on the 'kinefuri odori' (pestle-swinging dance). Dancers wear enormous mortar-shaped flower-hats painted in a red, yellow, and blue checkerboard and, gripping pestles painted half crimson and half black, swing them as they dance roughly two kilometers along the road toward the shrine. The procession of vivid hats and rhythmic pestle work is a harvest-prayer dance handed down over several centuries. Joining the line are children, demons, tengu, okame and hyottoko masks, musicians, fly-chasers, and a great lion (oojishi); the climax comes at the shrine precincts with the great lion's 'cave entry' and the 'hanauma' — flower-decked horses charging up the stone steps. As the 'Kinefuri Odori of Hirukawa,' it is designated an Intangible Folk Cultural Property of Gifu Prefecture.