🏮 Kangen Sai

管弦祭

Hatsukaichi, Hiroshima (嚴島神社) · Every year on 30 June

Summer festivalTraditional performing arts

289 days to go
Rooms around Hatsukaichi, Hiroshima fill up while the festival is on.

Kangen-sai (the Kangen Festival), the most important ritual at Itsukushima Shrine, is held every year on the 17th day of the sixth month of the old lunar calendar at Miyajima in Hatsukaichi, Hiroshima Prefecture. To soothe the gods, richly decorated gozabune (festival boats) travel across the Seto Inland Sea playing kangen (court music), creating an elegant atmosphere like a picture scroll from the Heian period. The origin of the festival dates back to Taira no Kiyomori, and it is said that the kangen music that aristocrats enjoyed in the Heian-era capital was adapted into a dynamic ritual suited to the sea at Miyajima. In 1701 (the 14th year of Genroku), when a gozabune was on the verge of capsizing in a storm, the villages of Aga and EbA rescued it, and since then the tradition of EbA and Aga towing the gozabune has continued. The festival begins at 3 p.m. with the hatsuren-sai, and ceremonies and kangen performances are offered in order at the offshore area by the Otorii, Nigitsu Hime Shrine, Nagahama Shrine, and Omodaru Shrine. The climax at night is the kangen performed while the gozabune circles three times in the narrow masugata area in front of Kaya Shrine, where bonfires and lantern lights illuminate the nearly full moon in the summer night sky, captivating worshippers. Access: About 10 minutes by JR West Miyajima Ferry from JR Miyajimaguchi Station, get off at Miyajima Pier. About 15 minutes on foot to Itsukushima Shrine.