Omori Shrine Annual Festival (Doburoku Festival)

About this event

The Omori Shrine Annual Festival (Doburoku Festival) held in Kumano City, Mie Prefecture, is a traditional harvest thanksgiving festival with approximately 800 years of history. Continuing since the Kamakura period, the festival's greatest highlight is the serving of about 180 liters (9 to, 9 sho, 9 go) of unrefined sake (doburoku) to worshipers following the Shinto rituals, brewed over roughly one month by the head representative of the parishioners using rice from sacred offering paddies and spring water. Surrounded by cedar groves and a clear stream, the grounds of Omori Shrine bustle with visitors savoring doburoku and fill with a pleasant, tipsy mood. Permission to brew doburoku for festival rites is rare, and that tradition continues to this day. Omori Shrine is the tutelary guardian for the Ogawa, Nagai, and Konodokoro districts of Ikusei-cho, said to have been founded in the early Kamakura period. The main hall is built in the rare "Kasuga-zukuri" style, preserving ancient forms. Doburoku serving starts from 12:00, and the rice cake toss (mochimaki) takes place from 14:30.

Venue

Omori Shrine

648 Ogawa, Ikusei-cho, Kumano, Mie 519-4447