🏮 Keta no U Matsuri

気多の鵜祭り

Hakui, Ishikawa (Keta Grand Shrine) · Every year on 16 December

Traditional performing arts

93 days to go
Rooms around Hakui, Ishikawa fill up while the festival is on.

Keta no U-matsuri, held at Keta Taisha in Hakui, Ishikawa Prefecture, every year on December 16 from 3:00 a.m., is a Shinto ritual designated as a nationally important intangible folk cultural property under the name "Customs of the Keta no U-matsuri." Cormorants captured in Unoura, Nanao, are carried on foot to Keta Taisha by three cormorant catchers and offered before the deities in the solemn nighttime ritual. The heart of the festival lies in an old custom in which an elder divines whether the coming year will be abundant or poor by watching the movements of a cormorant released before the deities until it settles on a stand. As soon as it settles, the bird is seized, carried to the shore in front of the Shrine, and released into the pitch-dark sky. This ritual, passed down in the deep cold of night, is a valuable event that conveys ancient faith and the wisdom of nature to the present.