🏮 Minamiada no Nagashi Bina

南阿田の流し雛

Gojo, Nara (Genryuji Temple) · Every year in early April

206 days to go
Rooms around Gojo, Nara fill up while the festival is on.

In Minamiada, Gojo City, Nara Prefecture, the Minamiada Nagashibina is held every year on the first Sunday of April. The local nagashibina preservation society leads the effort to maintain this local tradition. The event begins at Genryu-ji Temple, known as the "Hina Temple," and takes place on the riverbed of the Yoshino River. This nagashibina (doll floating) was passed down in Minamiada, Gojo City until before the war, but was interrupted during and after the war, and was revived in 1969 (Showa 44). A pair of male and female hina dolls, dressed in simple paper kimonos and hakama and with heads made from soybeans, are placed on boats made of bamboo sheaths and floated down the Yoshino River. This is a traditional event praying that they will drift to Awashima Shrine in Kishu, wishing for the prevention of illness and healthy growth for girls, and it is an old custom connected to the doll floating in the Suma chapter of The Tale of Genji. On the day, a hina memorial service is held at Genryu-ji Temple from 1:00 PM, and the nagashibina is carried out from 2:00 PM on the Yoshino River riverbed at Nakase in Minamiada. Handmade hina dolls floating on the clear stream, accompanied by boats with paper coins, are quietly set adrift carrying prayers.