Mishima Taisai Festival

Origin

For the people of Mishima, the shrine’s annual festival day has long been “the shrine’s summer festival”, and this celebration grew up alongside it. The floats were already being pulled round the town in the early Edo period, and a permit dated 1669 survives. The music played on them, Mishima hayashi, is said to have been given its basic form in the 1530s and 1540s by a dancer attached to the shrine, and has been handed down from person to person without written scores; it is an Intangible Folk Cultural Property of Shizuoka Prefecture. Minamoto no Yoritomo, then in exile in Izu, is said to have prayed at the shrine and raised his army on 16 and 17 August 1180, and a procession recreating the event has been held since 1948. Once called the Mishima Summer Festival, it has been renamed the Mishima Taisai.

What to look for

At about 8 p.m. the host neighbourhoods’ floats gather in front of the great torii of Mishima Taisha and face off together, beating out shagiri. Shagiri is a brisk style of festival music, said to have begun as a way of rousing warriors; together with the slower, more stately ohayashi it makes up Mishima hayashi. After the face-off the floats head home to their neighbourhoods playing the homeward tune known as Kamakura. Over the three days, the 15th centres on the floats and shagiri, the 16th on traditional performances such as the Yoritomo procession and hand-held fireworks, and the 17th on mounted archery and parades of the Nōheibushi folk dance and Mishima samba, with the float face-off every night.

How to watch

The Mishima Taisai is held alongside the annual festival of Mishima Taisha, every year from 15 to 17 August. Floats meeting head-on used to end in fierce contests, so routes are now set so that they do not cross. The Yoritomo procession is cancelled if it rains. Drones and other unmanned aircraft may not be flown. During the evening face-off, the steps and approach on the south side of the shrine’s sacred pond are closed to spectators; keep moving through them. It is high summer, so drink water, take salt and rest often. The city films and photographs the festival, and spectators may appear in the footage.

If you go

If you go, go in the evening: the float face-off in front of the great torii from about 8 p.m. each night is the climax. For the Yoritomo procession go late on the afternoon of the 16th, and for mounted archery on the 17th. Mishima Taisha is about 15 minutes’ walk from JR Mishima Station, or close to Mishima-Hirokōji Station on the Izuhakone Railway Sunzu Line. During the festival the main street and the roads around it are closed to traffic from the afternoon into the night, with diversions in the surrounding area. Check event times and places on the official Mishima Taisai site.

Where

Mishima Taisha and central Mishima

Mishima, Shizuoka

Sources

• Mishima Taisha: annual rites (15–17 August)
• Mishima Taisai committee: history
• Mishima Taisai committee: highlights of the three days
• Mishima Taisai committee: the Yoritomo procession (cancelled in rain)
• Mishima Taisai committee: festival map (road closures; drones banned)