🏮 Hinkoko Matsuri

ひんここまつり

Mino, Gifu (Oyada Shrine) · Every year on the day after the 2nd Saturday of April

Traditional performing arts

208 days to go
Rooms around Mino, Gifu fill up while the festival is on.

Hinkoko Matsuri is a traditional event held at Oyada Shrine in Mino City, Gifu Prefecture, centered on the Hinkoko no Mai, a dedicatory dance performed as part of the shrine's annual festival. Special performances for visitors are also held, passing on this ancient art to the present day. The dance is a simple puppet play that has continued for about 500 years and is inherited by the Oyada Hinkoko Preservation Society. Members of the society, to the sound of flutes and drums, raise a distinctive cry of "Hoi" and manipulate puppets, including one of a farmer about 2 meters tall. A particular highlight is the scene in which a large serpent about 7 meters long and a puppet of Susanoo-no-Mikoto appear, and the serpent is slain. In 2024, the Susanoo-no-Mikoto puppet was newly made for the first time in 14 years, and careful preservation and transmission continue today.

Getting there

Oyada Shrine in Oyada, Mino City, Gifu Prefecture. By public transport: about 15 minutes on foot from Oyada Station on the Nagaragawa Railway. By car: about 10 minutes from Mino IC on the Tokai-Hokuriku Expressway. Parking available.