🏮 Yahagi Jinja Aki no Taisai

矢作神社秋の大祭

Yahagi, Iwate (Yahagi Shrine) · Every year on 1 and 2 October

FloatsTraditional performing arts

17 days to go
Rooms around Yahagi, Iwate fill up while the festival is on.

The Yahagi Shrine Autumn Grand Festival is held every year on October 1 and 2 at Yahagi Shrine and the surrounding Yahagi Town area in Okazaki City, Aichi Prefecture. A tradition dating back to the late Edo period, it once involved four settlements, including Higashi no Kiri, each pulling their own dashi (festival float) in competition. In the late Meiji to early Taisho period, the dashi of Kami no Kiri (District 4) was sold off, and with the opening of the railway in 1923, the dashi of Higashi no Kiri (District 1) could no longer be paraded; each was moved to Chita and Chiryu respectively. Today two dashi remain, those of Districts 2 and 3, and the District 2 festival dashi built in 1814 and the District 3 festival dashi built around 1839 are both kept as tangible folk cultural properties of Okazaki City. On the first day, October 1, the dashi are decorated in front of the dashi storehouse, and the hayashi-kata (festival music players) board them and play. The dashi depart from Yahagi Shrine and are pulled around via Yagoto Shrine and Setsuju Shrine on the old Tokaido, stopping at Yahagi-kan along the way. At the kagura-den within the shrine grounds, a dance by miko is offered, and the dashi town parading and the Shinto rituals carry the region's traditions to the present.

Getting there

About 15 minutes on foot from Nishio-guchi Station on the Meitetsu Nishio Line, or immediately after getting off at the Meitetsu Tobu Kanko bus stop Yahagi Shrine-mae. Parking is available within the shrine grounds.