Shikoku · Kagawa · Kotohira
Ōka-sai (Kotohira-gū)
桜花祭(金刀比羅宮)
A spring rite at Kotohira-gū in Kotohira, Kagawa, held to keep disease from spreading as the cherry blossoms fall. Priests with cherry blossoms in their headdresses and shrine maidens carrying cherry branches climb the stone steps from the Great Gate to the main shrine to the sound of court music. Held every year on 10 April.
Next
10 April 2027
160 days away
Every year, 10 April
Future dates: 10 April 2027 · 10 April 2028 · 10 April 2029
Origin
The Ōka-sai is Kotohira-gū’s chinka-sai, a rite for calming the blossoms. It was believed that when the cherry blossoms fall in spring, the spirits of disease scatter with the petals, and the rite is held to stop them. The chinka-sai is said to have begun in the reign of Emperor Sujin and flourished in the Heian period, when the two deities of Ōmiwa and Sai were worshipped to quell the epidemics that spread as the blossoms fell in the third lunar month.
What to look for
At 9:30 a.m. a procession of priests with cherry blossoms in their headdresses and shrine maidens carrying cherry branches makes its stately way from the Great Gate to the main shrine, accompanied by court musicians. At the ceremony in the main shrine, offerings from sea, river, mountain and field are presented, decorated with sprigs of cherry, and after the prayer the Yamato-mai and Yaotome-mai dances are performed. Afterwards imayō, old court songs, are performed in the Ryokutai-den hall. The rite falls as the precinct’s roughly 3,500 cherry trees come into bloom, and the Sakura-no-baba stretch of the main approach is famous as the shrine’s finest place for blossoms.
How to watch
This is a Shinto rite of Kotohira-gū, and the procession is cancelled if it rains. The shrine asks visitors to take photographs with restraint in the precincts, especially near the shrine buildings, so as not to get in the way of worshippers. In keeping with the custom of the Konpira-inu, the dogs once sent on pilgrimage here, visitors may bring pets, but not into the shrine buildings.
If you go
If you go, wait for the procession on the steps between the Great Gate and the main shrine on the morning of 10 April. The main shrine stands at the top of 785 stone steps, about an hour’s climb from the bottom. If you drive, park in the town and walk up.
Where
Kotohira-gū, from the Great Gate to the main shrine
Kotohira, Kagawa
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