🏮 Kawakami Matsuri

川上祭

Takashima, Shiga (平ヶ崎馬場) · Every year on 18 April

MikoshiTraditional performing arts

216 days to go
Rooms around Takashima, Shiga fill up while the festival is on.

Kawakami Matsuri (Sanyare Matsuri) is a joint festival of Hioki Shrine and Tsuno Shrine held in Takashima, Shiga Prefecture, on the third Sunday of April each year. Old forms such as hayashi music and Sanyare have been passed down, and in 1988 it was designated an intangible folk cultural property of Shiga Prefecture. On the day, once ceremonies at both shrines are finished, large banners and a mikoshi (portable shrine) are brought out in rotation and head to the midpoint at Hiragasaki Baba. With two large banners about 20 meters tall and about 50 small banners carried by children lined up, a mikoshi procession and Sanyare dance are presented, and at the festival grounds at the back of the Baba, a prayer ritual by representatives of the shrine parishioners and horseback archery are held. "Sanyare" is said to come from an ancient prayer to drive out evil spirits and seek help from the good spirits of ancestors, and carries meanings such as "come, purify" and "may there be happiness."

Getting there

To Hiragasaki Baba / From JR Omi-Imazu Station, take the bus (Sogo Undo Koen Line) for about 20 minutes, get off at "Shobo Honbu Mae" and walk immediately.