🏮 Hamaori Sai

浜降祭

Chigasaki, Kanagawa (Tsurumine Hachimangu Shrine; Samukawa Shrine in Samukawa, Koza District) · Every year on Marine Day (3rd Monday of July)

Summer festivalMikoshi

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Hamamori-sai is held every year on Marine Day in July at Nishihama Beach in Chigasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture. Parishioners of various shrines, including Samukawa Shrine and Tsurumine Hachimangu, carry mikoshi (portable shrines) and parade through the area with the dokkoi-style carrying rhythm matched to jinku songs. Its most distinctive feature is the misogi purification, in which the parishioners enter the sea all at once and dip the mikoshi into the water. There are various theories about its origin. According to one widely held view, the seaside purification rites that Samukawa Shrine and Tsurumine Hachimangu (formerly Sazuka Daimyojin) had each performed at separate locations were unified at the beach in Nango and came to be held jointly. In 1876 the date was moved from the 29th day of the sixth month on the old calendar to July 15 on the new calendar, and the festival was named Hamamori-sai. Later the holiday was changed to Marine Day. Until around the beginning of the Heisei era, it was a rough festival in which mikoshi were slammed into the sea, but in recent years it has changed to a form in which the mikoshi are carried into the water, and more women and children now take part. For shrines from distant areas, the mikoshi are sometimes transported by truck, but the festival is cherished as a traditional summer event in Chigasaki.

Getting there

To reach the venue at Chigasaki Nishihama Beach, it is about a 20-minute walk from JR Chigasaki Station, or about 10 minutes by bus to the Seaside Bathing Beach Entrance stop, followed by a 5-minute walk.