Kasuga Wakamiya On-matsuri

Origin

The festival of Wakamiya, the "young shrine" of Kasuga Taisha. According to the shrine, the 1130s brought heavy rain, floods, famine and disease; the regent Fujiwara no Tadamichi and others sought the young deity’s protection, and in 1135 a new sanctuary was built for it where it stands today. In the ninth month of the following year the deity was welcomed out onto the Kasuga plain and honoured with a rite — the first On-matsuri. From then on it was held by the whole province of Yamato, to pray for good harvests and the peace of the people. The date moved to the 27th of the eleventh month in the Muromachi period, and since the Meiji era it has been fixed at 17 December. The shrine says it has continued without a break for close to nine hundred years. It is designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property.

What to look for

Everything turns on 17 December. At midnight, in the *Senkō no Gi*, the deity is moved from its sanctuary to a temporary shrine at the Otabisho. At noon comes the *O-watari*, a procession of costume from the Heian period through to the Edo — some fifty horses and a thousand participants — closed by a daimyō’s procession at the rear. From 2:30 in the afternoon, on a square of turf before the temporary shrine, *kagura*, *dengaku*, *seino-o*, *sarugaku* (the forerunner of Noh) and *bugaku* court dance are offered one after another until past 10:30 at night. Before the day is out, the deity is carried back to its sanctuary.

How to watch

The two transfers of the deity take place in sacred darkness. For the midnight transfer every light along the approach is put out, and those attending may not take photographs — or even switch on a torch. Priests close around the deity with branches of *sakaki*, moving forward to the long, low cry of the *keihitsu* — the call that warns all present that the deity is passing.

If you go

The festival runs from 15 to 18 December, but the day to go is the 17th. By daylight that means the noon procession — from the Nara Prefectural Office past Kintetsu Nara station and up Sanjō-dōri to the Otabisho — and then the performances there. The midnight transfer happens the moment the 16th turns into the 17th, so you set out for Kasuga on the night of the 16th; Nara at midnight in December is cold, so dress for it. On the afternoon of the 18th there is offertory sumo and a closing Noh programme.

Where

Wakamiya Shrine of Kasuga Taisha and its Otabisho

Nara, Nara

Sources

• Kasuga Wakamiya On-matsuri, official site, stating the 15–18 December dates
• Kasuga Wakamiya On-matsuri, “About the festival”
• Kasuga Wakamiya On-matsuri, schedule of rites
• Kasuga Wakamiya On-matsuri, the O-watari procession
• Kasuga Wakamiya On-matsuri, rites at the Otabisho