🏮 Shunki Kobo Ki Yukumi Shiki

春季弘法忌湯汲み式

Shuzenji, Shizuoka (Shuzenji Temple) · Every year on 20 April

Traditional performing arts

218 days to go
Rooms around Shuzenji, Shizuoka fill up while the festival is on.

At Shuzenji Onsen in Shuzenji, Izu, Shizuoka Prefecture, the Yugumi-shiki (water-drawing ceremony) is held every year on April 21. It is the main event of the two-day Spring Kobōki festival, co-organized by the Shuzenji Onsen Business Cooperative. The Yugumi-shiki originates from the legend that about 1,200 years ago Kōbō Daishi discovered the Shuzenji Onsen source, Tokko-no-Yu, and began as a festival to give thanks for the hot springs and to remember Kōbō Daishi. From 1:30 p.m., about 30 young women selected from the city, dressed in matching kimono, receive water from Tokko-no-Yu drawn by monks into wooden buckets. Afterwards, about 250 people, including chigo (temple children), parade through the onsen town and offer the water before the spirit of Kōbō Daishi in the main hall of Shuzenji Temple. On the previous day, the 20th, a Manto-e (lantern gathering) is also held from Dokko-no-Yu Park to the same main hall, where hundreds of candles fantastically illuminate the spring onsen town.

Getting there

The venue is within the Shuzenji Onsen town, at Dokko-no-Yu Park and Shuzenji Temple. From Shuzenji Station on the Izuhakone Railway, take the Tokai Bus bound for Shuzenji Onsen for about 10 minutes, get off at the last stop and walk 5 minutes.