🏮 Kamezaki Shiohi Matsuri
亀崎潮干祭
Kamezaki, Aichi (神前神社) · Every year on 3 and 4 May
231 days to go
Rooms around Kamezaki, Aichi fill up while the festival is on.
Kamezaki Shiohi Matsuri is the festival of Kansaki Shrine in Kamezaki-cho, Handa City, Aichi Prefecture, a yamaboko (festival float) festival held every year on May 3 and 4. The "Kamezaki Shiohi Matsuri float event" is designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property of Japan, and in 2016 it was registered as UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage as part of the "Yama, Hoko, Yatai float festivals" inscription. The festival's origins are said to date back to the Onin and Bunmei eras of the Muromachi period, when samurai who arrived in Kamezaki are said to have begun it by erecting bamboo grass and hanging curtains on hand carts and pulling them around. The Higashigumi Miyamoto-sha float derives from that original form, and in the 18th century the present Chita-style float form was established. With a history of more than 300 years, this festival carries on the traditions of a port town that once prospered through shipping. Its highlight is the stirring moment when five floats gather on the beach at low tide and are pulled down onto the sand. The five floats — Higashigumi Miyamoto-sha, Ishibashigumi Seiryu-sha, Nakagirigumi Rikishin-sha, Tanakagumi Kagura-sha, and Nishigumi Kao-sha — each have different decorations and karakuri (mechanical) puppets, and the Kagura-sha's "kugutsushi" (puppeteer) is known as a valuable historical source for the history of theater.
Getting there
About 5 minutes on foot from Kamezaki Station on the JR Taketoyo Line
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Local specialities
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