🏮 No Do Nichiyo Sagicho Matsuri

左義長祭り

Omi Hachiman, Shiga (Himure Hachimangu Shrine) · Every year in mid March

Floats

182 days to go
Rooms around Omi Hachiman, Shiga fill up while the festival is on.

The Sagicho Matsuri is held on Saturdays and Sundays in March at Himure Hachimangu Shrine in Omihachiman, Shiga Prefecture, and is a fire festival designated a national intangible folk cultural property. It originates in New Year rites of China's Han dynasty and has been held since 1219 as a festival praying for the protection of the nation and a good harvest. In Omihachiman, it is said to have taken hold as the festival of the clan shrine Himure Hachimangu when Toyotomi Hidetsugu built Hachiman-yama Castle and founded the castle town. About a dozen Sagicho floats, roughly 6 meters tall, are paraded through the town by young men in dance coats (happi) and makeup, beating wooden clappers. On Sunday afternoon the floats clash with one another in what is called "kenka," and from around 8 p.m. they are offered to the fire one after another in the shrine grounds, bringing the two-day festival to its climax.

Getting there

About 8 minutes by Omi Railway bus from JR Omihachiman Station, get off at "Hachimanyama Ropeway-mae" and walk immediately, or about 20 minutes on foot from the same station.