Shikoku · Kagawa · Kotohira

Kotohira-gū Reitaisai (Grand Festival)

金刀比羅宮例大祭

The most important festival of Kotohira-gū in Kotohira, Kagawa. On the night of the 10th a golden portable shrine and a procession of some 600 people, led by children on horseback and in palanquins, descend the stone steps from the main shrine to a resting place in the town below. Held every year from 9 to 11 October.

9–11 October 2027

343 days away

Every year, 9 October, for 3 days

Future dates: 9 October 2027 · 9 October 2028 · 9 October 2029

Origin

A rite particular to Kotohira-gū, listed in the almanac as the Kotohira Festival. The 10th of October is the one day of the year when the deity is said to come down from Mount Kotohira to the town at its foot. The procession is led by four children, two boys and two girls, in the belief that a child free of ill intent can guide a god. The role once rotated among four villages at the foot of the mountain; today the children are recruited from worshippers across Japan.

What to look for

The draw is the descent on the night of the 10th. Leaving the main shrine at 9 p.m., the procession, headed by footmen and followed by the children, the sacred horse, shrine maidens, musicians and the portable shrine, takes some two hours to come down the 785 stone steps and the approach. On the night of the 11th it returns from the resting place to the main shrine, ending with a dash up the last and steepest flight of steps.

How to watch

Visitors are asked not to take photographs in a way that gets in the way of other worshippers in the shrine grounds. Pets may come along, but may not enter the shrine buildings, and picnics or heavy eating and drinking in the grounds are discouraged. On the 10th the roads around the approach are closed to traffic from 7 p.m. until 2 a.m.

If you go

The procession can be watched along the 2-kilometre route from the main shrine to the resting place in the South Garden, by the town’s ritual ground. The main shrine is about 30 minutes’ walk from JR Kotohira Station, or 25 minutes from Kotoden-Kotohira Station. On the shrine’s programme, the eve rite is at 4 p.m. on the 9th; on the 10th the portable shrine leaves the main shrine at 9 p.m. and reaches the resting place some two hours later; and on the 11th there is a horse offering and court dance at the resting place before the procession returns to the main shrine at 9 p.m. On the evening of the 10th the town also stages dancing and other events along the approach. Parts of the programme may change from year to year.

Where

Kotohira-gū, from the main shrine to the resting place

Kotohira, Kagawa

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Sources

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