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🏮 Yudate Shishimai

湯立獅子舞

Hakone, Kanagawa (Sengokuhara Suwa Shrine) · Every year on 27 March

Traditional performing arts

194 days to go
Rooms around Hakone, Kanagawa fill up while the festival is on.

The Sengokuhara Yudate Shishimai, held in Sengokuhara, Hakone, Kanagawa Prefecture in late March, is a traditional festival designated as an intangible folk cultural property of Kanagawa Prefecture. This event, continuing since the Edo period, has been passed down as a form of faith deeply rooted in the region since ancient times, and is familiar as a Shinto ritual announcing spring in Hakone. In the central "Kamameguri no Mai" (kettle-circling dance), a shishimai (lion dance) performer stirs the boiling water in a kettle with bamboo leaves and sprinkles the hot water droplets onto worshippers. It is said that bathing in the water used in the Shinto ritual can bring health and safety for the year, and the dynamic dance with rising steam and the solemn atmosphere convey the breath of good old tradition to the attendees.

Getting there

From Hakone-Yumoto Station, take the Hakone Tozan Bus bound for Sengokuhara for about 30 minutes, get off at Sengokuhara Bunka Center-mae, and walk 1 minute.