🏮 Yobuko no Otsunahiki

呼子の大綱引

Karatsu, Saga (Yobuko Civic Center (6th), Yobuko San Shrine (7th)) · Every year on 30 June

Traditional performing arts

289 days to go
Rooms around Karatsu, Saga fill up while the festival is on.

The Yobuko Otsunahiki (great rope pull) held in Yobuko, Karatsu City, Saga Prefecture, is a nationally designated Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property in which participants split into the Hama group and the Oka group and pull against each other on a rope 200 meters long. The outcome is used to pray for good fishing and good harvests, with the central "mito" placed in front of Yobuko Mitsujinja Shrine, and the contest decided in three rounds to the sound of a gong. The festival's origins date back to the era when Toyotomi Hideyoshi had his camp at Hizen Nagoya Castle. It is said to have begun when Kato Kiyomasa and Fukushima Masanori had their camps divided into east and west and made their soldiers pull the ropes of warships to raise morale. On the day, tourists can also join in on the spot, and as the "Hajimari no Yobuko Otsunahiki," there are performances connected to the origins, including a warrior corps associated with Lord Kato Kiyomasa and Lord Fukushima Masanori, warrior panels, and the installation of banners with family crests.

Getting there

About 40 minutes by Showa Bus from JR Karatsu Station or Nishi-Karatsu Station, or from Oteguchi (Karatsu Bus Center). By car, about 40 minutes from the Nishi-Kyushu Expressway "Karatsu IC," or about 60 minutes from the Nagasaki Expressway "Taku SIC."