Morotabune Shinji (Miho Shrine)

諸手船神事(美保神社)

A rite at Miho Shrine in Mihonoseki, Matsue, Shimane, that re-enacts the myth of the ceding of the land from the Kojiki. Two ancient dugout boats, the morotabune, crewed by parishioners in white, race across the winter harbour of Mihonoseki, splashing each other with seawater. Held every year on 3 December.

3 December 2026

32 days away

Every year, 3 December

Future dates: 3 December 2026 · 3 December 2027 · 3 December 2028

Origin

In the Kojiki myth of the ceding of the land, Ōkuninushi of Izumo is pressed to give up his realm and sends a messenger by boat to consult his son Kotoshironushi, known as Ebisu, who is fishing at the cape of Miho. The Morotabune Shinji comes from the story of the divine messenger arriving at Miho in a morotabune and Kotoshironushi agreeing to the cession, and re-enacts the scene as a race between two boats. In the past it was called the Iyaho Festival, an autumn festival of thanks for the rice harvest, and it was once held on the first Day of the Horse of the eleventh lunar month. It is the counterpart of the Aofushigaki rite on 7 April, which comes from the story of Kotoshironushi, the deity of Miho Shrine, hiding himself behind a green brushwood fence; the two are linked by many observances through the year and sustained by the shrine together with the parishioners’ rota of host households. The rite is recorded in Un’yō-shi, a local gazetteer of 1717. The morotabune are boats used only for this rite, keeping the form of ancient canoes hollowed from a single fir trunk; they have been rebuilt many times since the Edo period, and the present pair was dedicated in 1979. They are an Important Tangible Folk Cultural Property of Japan.

What to look for

At 1:30 p.m. two morotabune, each crewed by nine parishioners in white, race across Mihonoseki harbour, throwing seawater at each other as they row. They re-enact the messengers’ boats setting out to fetch Kotoshironushi, a bold spectacle staged on the winter harbour. On 3 December the shrine holds the harvest thanksgiving rite at 9:30 a.m. and the rite of the Marōdo shrine at noon, and the Morotabune Shinji closes the day. The rowers, called kako, and other roles are chosen by sacred lot.

How to watch

This is a rite of Miho Shrine, and the crews are parishioners. The rota of parishioner households that sustains this rite and the Aofushigaki has become hard to keep up as the town shrinks and ages, and Matsue City began surveying and recording it in 2024. Spectators watch from the harbourside.

If you go

If you go, be at Mihonoseki harbour at 1:30 p.m. on 3 December for the boat race. Mihonoseki is a small port at the eastern tip of the Shimane Peninsula, reached by connecting buses from JR Sakaiminato Station or Matsue Station.

Where

Miho Shrine and Mihonoseki harbour

Matsue, Shimane

Open in maps

Sources

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