🏮 Menkake Gyoretsu

面掛行列

Kamakura, Kanagawa (Goryo Shrine) · Every year on 18 September

Traditional performing arts

4 days to go
Rooms around Kamakura, Kanagawa fill up while the festival is on.

The Menkake Gyoretsu (Masked Procession) is held every year on September 18 at Goryo Shrine (Gongoro Shrine) in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture. It is a festival designated as an intangible folk cultural property of Kanagawa Prefecture, in which parishioners wearing ten kinds of masks and ancient costumes parade through the streets. Praying for the expulsion of epidemics and a bountiful harvest of the five grains, it has been passed down as an important local event announcing autumn in Kamakura. Originally a ritual of Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine, it is said to have a history continuing since the Kamakura period. The ten masks that appear are the Old Man, the Ogre, the Grotesque, the Long Nose, the Crow Tengu, the Venerable, the Fire Blower, Fukuroku, Okame, and the Woman, and people wearing masks with different expressions each proceed along the approach. The highlight of the procession is the unique atmosphere in which the masked people show their faces to each other and speak to the spectators. Also known by the other name Haramitto Festival, it is said that touching Okame's belly brings a safe delivery, and it is known as a strange festival where history and playfulness intersect.