🏮 Yatagarasu Jinji

八咫烏神事

Tanabe, Wakayama (Kumano Hongu Grand Shrine) · Every year on 7 January

MikoshiTraditional performing arts

115 days to go
Rooms around Tanabe, Wakayama fill up while the festival is on.

The Yata no Hi Matsuri (Yata Fire Festival) held at Kumano Hongu Taisha in Tanabe, Wakayama Prefecture, is a festival associated with the yatagarasu (three-legged crow), the messenger of the Kumano deities. Following the ancient legend that it guided Emperor Jimmu through the mountains of Okukumanō, it is presented as a "festival of guidance" with the meaning of "leading people to happiness," weaving together the history of Hongu and modern sensibilities, and developing from a solemn traditional rite into a festival of drums and fireworks. Starting from Kumano Hongu Taisha at dusk, a procession of about 50 people in total, guided by the light of roughly 250 Japanese candles, advances to Oyunohara. The Oyunohara ritual, in which fire is transferred from the mikoshi's sacred flame to a "flaming mikoshi," the powerful performance of the local Okukumanō Taiko drums, and the Yata fireworks rising into the Kumano sky provide the finale. The historical procession of participants dressed in tsubo costumes, as yamabushi, and in white haku robes is also a highlight, and against the setting of Kumano Hongu Taisha, Oyunohara, and the Kumano River riverbed, fire and light illuminate the Kumano night.

Getting there

The venues are Kumano Hongu Taisha, Oyunohara, and the Kumano River riverbed. The nearest stations are JR Shingu Station or Kumano City Station; from there take a Kumano Kotsu bus for about 90 minutes and get off at "Hongu Taisha-mae," which is immediately there. There is a temporary parking lot (guidance on the day).