Greater Tokyo · Ibaraki · Ishioka

Ishioka Festival (Hitachinokuni Sōsha Shrine Grand Festival)

石岡のおまつり(常陸國總社宮例大祭)

The grand festival of Hitachinokuni Sōsha Shrine in Ishioka, Ibaraki, counted among the three great festivals of the Kantō region. Some thirty horojishi, lion heads drawing covered wagons, twelve floats crowned with towering figures, and the shrine’s great portable shrine parade through the town. Held every year over the three days, Saturday to Monday, that end on Respect for the Aged Day in September, after the shrine’s own rite on 15 September.

18–20 September 2027

321 days away

Every year, the 3rd Monday of September, minus 2 days, for 3 days

Future dates: 18 September 2027 · 16 September 2028 · 15 September 2029

Origin

Some 1,300 years ago Ishioka was the seat of the provincial government of Hitachi, and Hitachinokuni Sōsha Shrine was founded next to it as the province’s sōsha, a shrine where all the gods of the province were brought together in one place. Offertory sumo began at the festival in the 1740s, and lion dances joined it in the late Edo period. In the early Meiji era, merchants grown rich on brewing and other trades built lavish floats, and the decorated displays that had once appeared at the town’s Gion and Atago festivals were drawn into the shrine’s celebration. In 1902 a rota was set up under which fifteen neighbourhoods take turns, one each year, to host the festival, and the present form took shape, with the great portable shrine carried to a temporary hall built in the host neighbourhood. The festival used to span the three days around 9 September; it moved to its present dates in 2004.

What to look for

On the second day, Sunday, from late afternoon into the night, the horojishi and then the floats climb Miyuki-dōri from the station in two grand processions. A horojishi, found only here, is a lion head up to 60 cm tall joined to a wagon-borne hut, some 2 metres wide and 5 metres long, in which the musicians ride; each neighbourhood drapes its own in two colours of cloth, and the lions dance forward to the rousing calls of the children. After dark the floats line up in the station square and set off up the street together. Each is open to the sky, two or three tiers high, and crowned with a figure of a hero some 2 metres tall; on the revolving stage below, dancers in the masks of Okame, Hyottoko and the fox perform to Ishioka hayashi, the town’s festival music. On the first day, Saturday, the lions of every neighbourhood gather on the site of the old provincial government office to escort the great portable shrine, the only time all of them can be seen at once.

How to watch

The rite on 15 September is the shrine’s most solemn ceremony and has no events for visitors; the festival you can watch is the three days up to Respect for the Aged Day. At its heart, a share of the shrine’s god is carried in the great portable shrine to a temporary hall in the host neighbourhood, stays two nights and returns. Anyone may pray at the temporary hall, and the middle day, Sunday, is relatively quiet. The festival goes ahead in rain as a rule; when typhoons, heavy rain or lightning make it unsafe, each event is changed or called off separately. Mid-September is a rainy season and the festival is also known as the “rain festival”, so a raincoat is easier than an umbrella in the crowds. Take your rubbish home and follow the stewards’ directions. Visitors are firmly asked not to park without permission at shops and other businesses, which the organisers say threatens the festival’s future.

If you go

If you go, go on the second day, Sunday, from late afternoon into the night. The festival fills the town just outside the west exit of JR Ishioka Station on the Jōban Line; the station square and the T-junction at the top of Miyuki-dōri, known locally as Kagiya-mae, are the liveliest spots. On all three days the centre is closed to traffic from 1 p.m. until about 9 p.m., and nearby car parks fill by about 1 p.m., so go by train. The Ishioka City Tourism Association’s live tracking map shows where each neighbourhood’s floats and lions are, along with toilets and car parks. Event times change from year to year, so check the festival site run with the preservation society’s approval. The first day, Saturday, draws smaller crowds than the others.

Where

Hitachinokuni Sōsha Shrine and central Ishioka

Ishioka, Ibaraki

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Sources

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