Kuwana Ishidori Festival

桑名石取祭

The festival of Kuwana Sōja Shrine, also called Kasuga Shrine, in Kuwana, Mie. Some forty lavishly decorated festival carts, each carrying gongs and drums, are pulled round the town beating them day and night, earning it the name “the noisiest festival in Japan”. Held every year on the first Sunday of August, the main day, and the Saturday before.

31 July 2027 – 1 August 2027

272 days away

Every year, the 1st Sunday of August, minus 1 day, for 2 days

Future dates: 31 July 2027 · 5 August 2028 · 4 August 2029

Origin

The festival grew out of a rite in which people went to the Machiya River on the southern edge of Kuwana, purified themselves in its clear water, and offered stones gathered there to Kuwana Sōja Shrine to cleanse the festival ground; it is said to date from the early Edo period. The stones were carried on small carts, and when drums and gongs began to be beaten along the way, the festival carts were born; over the centuries they grew larger and grander. Many were lost in the bombing of Kuwana in 1945, but townspeople built new ones one after another soon after the war. The cart rite was designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property in 2007, and in 2016 it was inscribed on UNESCO’s intangible heritage list as one of the yama, hoko, yatai float festivals.

What to look for

On the night of the main day, the carts take turns in front of the gate of Kasuga Shrine, each beating out eight minutes of Ishidori music with everything it has, in the tosai. The order is drawn by lot each year, and with some forty carts following one another from the first to the last, it runs on until close to midnight. The festival opens at midnight on the Saturday with the tatakidashi: at the signal of the shrine’s drum, the sound of gongs and drums spreads from the neighbourhoods nearest the shrine to those farthest away. On Saturday night the carts make their rounds in their groups, and on Sunday afternoon they line up along the old Tōkaidō road and other streets. After the tosai come the hikiwakare, in which carts stand back to back at crossroads, four at a time, and play before heading home. The carts carry carvings and metalwork by master craftsmen, including ornaments by the sculptor Takamura Kōun.

How to watch

The festival grew out of a rite of offering purifying stones to Kuwana Sōja Shrine. The carts are the treasures of Kuwana, so do not touch them, do not get too close, and follow the directions of the festival staff. During the tosai the crowds are thick until about 9 p.m.; watch as directed by the announcements and by the members of the youth association in white festival coats. On the Saturday carts move about all over town, so follow the police and the festival staff carrying lanterns when getting around. Come prepared for the heat.

If you go

If you go, go on the main day, Sunday: see the carts lined up in the afternoon, then stay for the tosai from early evening. Kasuga Shrine is about 20 minutes’ walk from Kuwana Station on the JR, Kintetsu and Yōrō lines. Roads around the shrine are closed and crowded, so go by public transport. The order and line-up of the carts change every year; check the Mie tourism site or the preservation society. If you stay to the end of the tosai it will be close to midnight, so keep an eye on the last trains.

Where

Kuwana Sōja (Kasuga) Shrine and central Kuwana

Kuwana, Mie

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Sources

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