🏮 Isaki no Sao Tobi

伊崎の竿飛び

Omi Hachiman, Shiga (Isaki Temple) · Every year on 1 August

Summer festival

321 days to go
Rooms around Omi Hachiman, Shiga fill up while the festival is on.

Izaki no Saitobi is held every year on August 1 at Izaki Temple in Omihachiman, Shiga Prefecture. It is a traditional event with over 1,000 years of history in which participants dive from a wooden pole about 7 meters high toward Lake Biwa. It began as an ascetic practice in which monks cleared their minds and trained their courage and spiritual strength, and today it is carried on as a summer event for warding off evil and making prayers, bearing people's wishes. The sight of divers leaping from the tip of a roughly 14-meter wooden pole into the lake surface, and the large splash echoing across the water, give it the power for which it is called one of the strange festivals of Omi. General participation is not possible, but the bold moment can be seen up close from the Saitobido in the grounds of Izaki Temple or from the deck of a cruise tour boat.

Getting there

From JR Omihachiman Station, take an Omi Railway bus on the route via Chomeiji bound for Kyukamura Omihachiman for about 30 minutes, get off at the last stop, and walk about 1 km. By car, about 40 minutes from Ryuo Interchange on the Meishin Expressway; there is a parking lot near the entrance to the approach (limited number of spaces).