Central Japan · Ishikawa · Hakui

Umatsuri (Keta Taisha)

鵜祭(気多大社)

A pre-dawn rite on 16 December at Keta Taisha, the first-ranked shrine of the old province of Noto, in Hakui, Ishikawa. A single cormorant, caught alive at Unoura in Nanao and carried on foot for three days by three men called utoribe, is released before the gods, and its movements foretell the harvest of the coming year. The bird is then set free into the dark sky from the shore in front of the shrine. An Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property. 16 December every year.

16 December 2026

RegularWorked out from the organiser’s fixed schedule.

43 days away

Every year, 16 December

Future dates: 16 December 2026 · 16 December 2027 · 16 December 2028

The Umatsuri on 16 December 2021 (Keta Taisha official channel, official channel on YouTube)

Origin

The rite is carried out by a special group of ritual bearers, the utoribe, from the households of Kadoshima in Unoura, Nanao. Before the festival the cormorant is caught on the “cormorant-catching cliff” below the Noto Kannonzaki lighthouse, and from that moment it becomes a god, called U-sama. Before dawn on 12 December the three utoribe on duty that year set out from Kadoshima in ceremonial robes and eboshi caps, one of them carrying the bird in a basket on his back. They walk through Nanao calling “utoribe, utoribe”; on the 13th they join the harvest rite at Keta Hongū in Nanao, which is said to be impossible without the Kadoshima cormorant; and they follow the old road south for about 40 km, reaching Keta Taisha in the evening of the 14th. Once there, the bird is given no more food. The rite was designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property in 2000.

What to look for

In the shrine at the dead of night, the movements of a released cormorant foretell the coming year. From 3 a.m. on the 16th, after sacred dances, the priest and the utoribe exchange a set dialogue and the bird is let go before the altar. As soon as it perches on the offering table it is caught, and the elders read the harvest of the next year from how it moved until then. The bird is carried straight to the shore in front of the shrine and released into the pitch-dark sky. Along the road, the colour of its feathers is read for the weather (blue means a rainy year, white a snowy one), and putting your ear to its basket is said to improve your hearing.

How to watch

The cormorant is treated as a god from the moment it is caught; along the road some people put their hands together, saying the New Year cannot be welcomed without praying to U-sama, and leave coins. In a year when no cormorant can be caught, the rite is not held; instead a ceremony reports to the gods that no bird was caught (as in 2024).

If you go

The rite begins at 3 a.m. on 16 December at Keta Taisha. The bird is released in the inner sanctuary, and worshippers watch from the hall of worship in front of it (about thirty people did so in 2025). It is not held in years when no cormorant is caught, so check the news on the shrine’s website just before (in years when a bird is caught, the shrine announces it). The utoribe carry the bird from 12 to 14 December, from Nanao through Nakanoto into Hakui.

Where

Keta Taisha

Hakui, Ishikawa

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Sources

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