🏮 Nanori Shimenawa Kiri And Fire Festival

名のり・注連縄切り・火祭り

Shima, Mie (Izawa no Miya) · Every year, 31 December to 1 January

Traditional performing arts

473 days to go
Rooms around Shima, Mie fill up while the festival is on.

The "Natori, Shimenawa Cutting, and Fire Festival" is held in Daio-cho, Shima City, Mie Prefecture, from New Year's Eve to New Year's Day, and is an annual event passed down in a community based on fishing. It begins with the natori, in which children carrying barrels and straw bags, together with a boatman wearing a red happi coat, parade through the district holding lanterns bearing the name "Deguchi Daimyojin." They visit homes with the call "Horoisa," receive mochi and other items, and later distribute them at the fisheries cooperative and other places. Next comes the shimenawa cutting, in which old shimenawa (sacred straw ropes) are burned, and the flames are stirred with bamboo poles in a motion like fishing; the higher the flames rise, the better the catch is said to be. In the subsequent fire festival ritual, fire from the bamboo poles is carried onto boats for purification, and the remaining unburned bamboo poles are thrown into the sea while chanting "Jingusan-san e ageru." The meaning of "Jingusan" is unclear, but it has been suggested that it may refer to a sea deity.

Getting there

By bus from the nearest station. From Kintetsu Ugata Station, take the Mie Kotsu bus bound for Goza Port, get off at Nashino Sato bus stop, and walk immediately.