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🏮 Idori Matsuri

いどり祭り

Noto, Ishikawa (Sugawara Shrine) · Every year on 7 November

54 days to go
Rooms around Noto, Ishikawa fill up while the festival is on.

The Idori Matsuri is held every year on November 7 at Sugawara Shrine in Ugawa, Noto Town, Ishikawa Prefecture. Six neighborhoods take turns serving as the year's host in this traditional Shinto ritual, in which a large kagami mochi (stacked round rice cakes) is offered to the shrine; preparations are carried out by men only. On the day, two large kagami mochi about 1.2 meters in diameter are offered before the deity, along with 50 to 60 small round mochi and 16 toshi mochi (year-crossing rice cakes). At the seat where the guest of honor, who will make the following year's large kagami mochi, is entertained, the "idori" that forms the core of the main ritual unfolds. The guests pick all sorts of faults with the kagami mochi and the mochi on the trays and start arguments. The hosts desperately try to explain themselves, but the dispute does not easily settle, and only when the Shinto priest steps in as mediator does it finally come to an end. This back-and-forth ritual is rare even in Noto and is the highlight.