Kotoshironushi Shrine Water-Splashing Festival

About this event

This traditional festival is held annually on the third Sunday of September at Kotoshironushi Shrine in Awaji City, Hyogo Prefecture. Known as a 'water-splashing festival' (Mizukake Matsuri) to pray for bountiful catches of fish, it is said to have originated in the early Meiji era when local shipwrights dedicated a portable shrine (mikoshi) to pray for local prosperity. The highlight of the festival is the parade (togyo) where the mikoshi is carried around the area. Historically an energetic festival once called a 'fighting festival,' water is vigorously splashed onto the mikoshi. This is believed to welcome the deity Kotoshironushi-no-Mikoto, who is closely associated with water, and to cool down the heated bearers. In recent years, it has taken on a strong sense of encouragement and boosting the morale of the junior high school student bearers. The student bearers parade through town chanting 'Water! Water! Bring on the water!!'. At the climax of the festival, the 'Shioami' ritual takes place where the mikoshi enters the sea, creating an unforgettable memory for the bearers before their junior high school graduation. The festival also features the procession into the shrine (miyairi) of futon-daiko drums from neighboring neighborhood associations, filling the surroundings of the small shrine with tremendous excitement.

Venue

Kotoshironushi Shrine (Kariya Ebisu)

240 Kariya, Awaji, Hyogo 656-2331