Western Honshū · Yamaguchi · Shimonoseki

Senteisai Festival (Akama Shrine)

先帝祭(赤間神宮)

The festival of Akama Shrine in Shimonoseki, dedicated to Emperor Antoku, who drowned at the age of eight in the Battle of Dan-no-ura. On 3 May five tayū in sumptuous costume parade through the streets with a slow, sweeping gait, then cross a bridge laid in the shrine to pay their respects. Held every year from 2 to 4 May.

2–4 May 2027

182 days away

Every year, 2 May, for 3 days

Future dates: 2 May 2027 · 2 May 2028 · 2 May 2029

Origin

In 1185 the Heike clan was defeated by the Genji at Dan-no-ura, and the child emperor Antoku went into the sea in the arms of his grandmother, the nun Nii no Ama. The Heike court ladies who survived were taken in by local people; they are said to have lived by picking wild flowers to sell to sailors in the harbour, and every year on the emperor’s death day to have dressed formally and gone to his memorial hall with flowers and incense. After the last of them died, the master of a pleasure quarter set up in the Edo period is said to have had his courtesans carry on the visits, to keep their devotion alive. The death day, the 24th of the third month in the old calendar, was fixed as 2 May when Japan changed calendars in the Meiji era.

What to look for

The climax is the courtesan procession and visit on 3 May. In the morning the five tayū, each attended by children, guards, court ladies and young maids, set out from Izaki-chō and stop along the way from Shimonoseki Station to Karato to perform the soto-hachimonji, a slow walk in which each foot is swung out in a wide arc. In the afternoon comes the visit to Akama Shrine: a bridge is laid for this day only from the Suitenmon gate, built to evoke the undersea Dragon Palace, to the main hall, and the tayū cross it with the same gait to pay their respects. The same day brings a parade of some 100 armoured Genji and Heike warriors and a mock sea battle of boats on the Kanmon Strait.

How to watch

The Senteisai is a memorial festival that begins on the death day of the enshrined emperor. The courtesans’ visit is a special rite to console his spirit, and the tayū are performed by members of Shimonoseki’s Japanese dance associations. On 3 May Akama Shrine opens at 9:30 a.m., and entry is restricted to prevent crushes. The shrine has no public parking. On the day before, 2 May, anyone may attend the memorial service for the Heike clan and watch the procession in which people dressed as Emperor Antoku, Nii no Ama, court ladies and warriors cross the bridge to the shrine. Roads on the procession route are closed to traffic and reopened only after the police have checked that the procession has passed. If it rains, the procession is held inside Sea Mall Shimonoseki, the shopping centre by Shimonoseki Station. A local saying, “Shimonoseki’s Sentei, Kokura’s Gion: if it doesn’t rain, money rains down,” speaks to the size of the crowds.

If you go

If you go, go on 3 May. The procession moves from Izaki-chō towards Karato in the morning, the visit to Akama Shrine is in the afternoon, and in the early evening the soto-hachimonji is performed once more on the stage at Sister City Plaza in Karato. Times change from year to year, so check the Shimonoseki Strait Festival page on the city’s official tourism site. Akama Shrine is just east of Karato Market, about ten minutes by bus from Shimonoseki Station. Traffic in the city is very heavy during the festival, so go by train, bus or ferry; from Mojikō on the opposite shore, the Kanmon ferry crosses to Karato.

Where

Akama Shrine and central Shimonoseki (Izaki-chō to Karato)

Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi

Open in maps

Sources

← All festivals