Saitō-sai (Kashima Jingū)

Origin

As its chant, “Kashima no hōchiku, tohoyotoya”, suggests, it is a festival of prayer for good harvests and peace in the land. Its origins are uncertain, but an old document records the festival being performed in 1204. Before the Meiji era it was mixed with a Buddhist rite, Jōraku-e, and the boy who leads the vanguard is still called shibochi, a Buddhist word for a child novice, as a trace of that past. From the Meiji era it was held every year on 9 March; since 2020 the procession and the evening rite have moved to the Saturday after 9 March. It was selected by the state as an Intangible Folk Cultural Property in 1976.

What to look for

Around midday the procession sets out behind the shibochi, the boy general in armour, and in the evening it ends in a mass performance in the precincts of Kashima Jingū. In groups of fifteen or sixteen, the performers sing the saitō-bayashi to the drum as they lock their six-foot oak staves together and pull them apart again through the streets. Arriving in the precincts around 4 p.m., all the groups gather to perform together. At the spring rite from 6 p.m., the great bamboo the district has tended all year is smashed to pieces, and the chief priest’s divination decides which districts will be on duty next year.

How to watch

The saitō-bayashi is offered by two districts chosen by divination from some fifty around Kashima Jingū, so each district’s turn comes round only every 20 to 25 years or so. The districts on duty receive a share of the shrine deity’s spirit at their local shrine and offer the procession in thanks for a year of peace. The “departure rite” on the morning of 9 March is a ceremony for district representatives and officials only. On procession day the preservation society also lets visitors join in, dressed in a happi coat and carrying a stave, with staff to show them how.

If you go

If you go, go from midday to early evening on the Saturday after 9 March (or on 9 March itself when it falls on a weekend). The procession tours the district from around noon and enters the precincts of Kashima Jingū around 4 p.m. for the mass performance. In years when 9 March falls on a weekday, that day has only the morning rite and no procession. On procession day, Ōmachi-dōri in front of the shrine’s torii and nearby streets are closed to cars. Parking is scarce, so come by the JR Kashima Line or the Kashima-gō highway bus from the Yaesu South Exit of Tokyo Station. The nearest station is Kashima-Jingū.

Where

Kashima Jingū and Kyūchū, Kashima

Kashima, Ibaraki

Sources

• Kashima Jingū: Saitō-sai 2026 (9 and 14 March)
• Kashima City: Saitō-sai 2025 (9 March, a Sunday)
• Kashima tourism association: 2025 leaflet (schedule, road closures, public transport)
• Kashima City: the rites of the Saitō-sai (9 March and the following Saturday)
• Kashima City: the Saitō-sai of Kashima
• Saitō-bayashi preservation society
• Kashima Jingū: access