Yagorō-don Festival

弥五郎どん祭り

The autumn grand festival of Iwakawa Hachiman Shrine in Ōsumi, Soo City, Kagoshima, counted among the three great festivals of the prefecture. Its highlight is the hamakudari, when Yagorō-don, a giant figure 4.85 metres tall, leads the shrine procession through the streets of Iwakawa. An Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property of Japan. Held every year on 3 November.

3 November 2026

2 days away

Every year, 3 November

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

Origin

Iwakawa Hachiman Shrine is said to have been founded in 1025 with a spirit brought from Iwashimizu Hachimangū in Kyoto, and moved to its present site in 1914. At its autumn grand festival, held to give thanks for the year’s harvest from the hills and fields, Yagorō-don clears the way at the head of the shrine procession known as the hamakudari. The rite is said to have begun in 720 as a hōjōe, a ceremony of releasing living creatures, held to console the spirits of the many Hayato who fell when the imperial army put down their resistance. No one is sure who he is: some say a chieftain of the ancient Hayato people, others Takenouchi no Sukune, the legendary minister who lived to 300 and served six emperors. The procession is one of the hamakudari common across southern Kyūshū, and in 1992 Yagorō-don was invited to a gathering of giants in Barcelona. It was selected by the state for documentation in 2019, and designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property of Japan in 2025.

What to look for

Shortly after midday the finished Yagorō-don leaves Iwakawa Hachiman Shrine for the hamakudari, a procession of about three hours through the town. He stands 4.85 metres tall, a warrior with glaring eyes and thick brows, robed in some 25 bolts of plum-dyed cloth and wearing a long and a short sword at his waist. He rides on a wheeled carriage, its ropes pulled by the neighbourhood children calling “Wasshoi, wasshoi!” The procession goes in order: drummers, Yagorō-don, a great parasol, the portable shrine, then banners and halberds. After a rest at the resting place it returns to the shrine. The moment people wait for most is when the giant passes beneath a road overpass, a manoeuvre nicknamed the “Ina Bauer”. The festival begins in the middle of the night, when young men go round the district beating a drum and calling “Yagorō-don is getting up!”, and the giant’s bamboo-basket body is assembled inside the shrine, robed and given his mask. At dawn he is brought out into the precincts and hauled upright on ropes in a single heave, the Yagorō-don okoshi, another sight worth seeing.

How to watch

This is the grand festival of Iwakawa Hachiman Shrine, and Yagorō-don leads the shrine procession. The ropes are pulled by the neighbourhood children; spectators greet the procession from the roadside. Raising Yagorō-don at dawn is the one part of the festival that anyone may join, and those who help are said to grow strong in body and see their fortunes rise. On the festival day the streets around the shrine are closed to cars.

If you go

If you go, be there for the hamakudari from early afternoon. To see Yagorō-don raised at dawn, reach Iwakawa Hachiman Shrine while it is still dark. The shrine is in Iwakawa, Ōsumi, Soo City, close to the Soo-Yagorō interchange on the Higashi-Kyūshū Expressway. Temporary car parks open on the festival day, and the procession route is closed to traffic.

Where

Iwakawa Hachiman Shrine and central Iwakawa (Ōsumi, Soo)

Soo, Kagoshima

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Sources

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