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🏮 Horowayama no Shimotsuki Kagura

保呂羽山の霜月神楽

Yokote, Akita (Haushibetsu Shrine) · Every year on 7 November

Important Intangible Folk Cultural PropertyTraditional performing arts

54 days to go
Rooms around Yokote, Akita fill up while the festival is on.

The Shimotsuki Kagura handed down at Horowasan Hahushibetsu Shrine, an officially recognized shrine in Yokote City, Akita Prefecture, is an important ritual giving thanks to the deities for the year's harvest and praying for abundant crops in the coming year. It is performed every year from 7:00 p.m. on November 7 until around 8:00 a.m. on November 8, in the shrine's Satomiya Hall. This kagura has a history of more than 1,200 years and is designated a national Important Cultural Property (intangible folk cultural property). The kagura is classified as yudate kagura (kagura involving boiling water), and priests from nearby villages gather in the main hall where the chief priest presides, devoting the entire night to thirty-three ritual performances. The highlight is the miko (shrine maiden) dance known as the Horowasan Mai, during which the miko delivers an oracle in the middle of the dance. This figure is known as a valuable performance that preserves to this day the form of the female attendants (miko) who can be called the prototype of the shrine maiden.

Getting there

50 minutes by car from JR Yokote Station, 50 minutes by car from Yokote IC on the Akita Expressway, 40 minutes by car from Yokote-Kita IC (ETC only), about 40 minutes by car from Omagari IC. There is no public transportation. Parking available (30 spaces).