🏮 Tajima Kutani no Shobu Tsunahiki

但馬久谷の菖蒲綱引き

Shinonsen, Hyogo (Hachiman Shrine) · Every year on 5 June

Summer festivalTraditional performing arts

264 days to go
Rooms around Shinonsen, Hyogo fill up while the festival is on.

At Yawata Shrine in Kutani, Shinonsen Town, Hyogo Prefecture, the Tajima Kutani Shobu Tsunahiki (Kutani Iris Tug-of-War in Tajima) is held mainly on June 5, which corresponds to the late-season Tango no Sekku (Boys' Festival). This is a Shinto ritual in which villagers divided into two groups pull a rope against each other, praying for a bountiful harvest and the development of the village. It is one of the folk events once seen throughout the country. This event well preserves the form of tug-of-war handed down along the Japan Sea coast since the Edo period, and in 1989 it was designated a national Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property. Today it is a precious festival inherited only in limited areas such as northern Hyogo Prefecture. The highlight is the powerful tug-of-war, carried out with the calls of "Eito, eito" in time with the "Ishiba-tsuki Uta" sung by the elders. The contest is held seven times, and the result of the final "Osame-tsuna" (closing rope pull) divines that year's harvest. As a tradition praying for divination of the year and the prosperity of the community, it is still carried on in Kutani today.