🏮 Koto Osame Hari Kuyo Jodo E Shika Uranai Shinji

事納め針供養　成道会　納めの薬師貫前神社の鹿占神事

Tomioka, Gunma (Ichinomiya Nukisaki Shrine) · Every year on 8 December

85 days to go
Rooms around Tomioka, Gunma fill up while the festival is on.

The Koto-osame Hari Kuyo (needle memorial service), Jodo-e, Osame no Yakushi, and the Shika-ura Shinji (deer divination rite) at Ichinomiya Nukisaki Shrine are traditional Shinto rites held on December 8 in Tomioka City, Gunma Prefecture. The shrine's Shika-ura Shinji divines the danger of fire for the surrounding 31 former villages. In earlier times it was held on the day of the dragon, five days before the spring and winter Mitobiraki festivals, but it is now fixed on December 8 and performed privately. Using a gimlet purified in the early-morning Kawase ritual, an octagonal hearth is set up in the worship hall. While a fire is lit in the hearth, the Ueno no Kuni Jinmyocho is recited, and the heated gimlet is driven through a deer's shoulder blade; good or ill fortune is judged from how it goes. The result is recorded and preserved in the Shika-ura Shinji Ourakata.