🏮 Seppe Tope
せっぺとぺ
Hioki, Kagoshima (Hachiman Shrine) · Every year on 30 June
289 days to go
Rooms around Hioki, Kagoshima fill up while the festival is on.
Seppe Tobe is a rice-planting festival held every June in the Hiyoshi area of Hioki City, Kagoshima Prefecture, and has continued for about 430 years since 1596. Centered on Kichirei Onimaru Shrine and Hioki Hachiman Shrine, the name Seppe Tobe means "jump with all your might." Young men in white robes form a circle in the rice field, drinking sake and singing songs as they leap vigorously, trampling the soil to crush insects, praying for a bountiful harvest while covered in mud. At Hachiman Shrine, a giant masked deity called Deodon appears to watch over the rice field rituals, and local residents and children's associations also dedicate bo-odori (stick dances) and komuso odori (mendicant flute dances).
Getting there
About 15 minutes by car from JR Ijuin Station, or take the Kagoshima Kotsu bus bound for Makurazaki for 15 minutes, get off at "Hioki Yubinkyokumae," then walk 5 minutes (to Hioki Hachiman Shrine).
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