Gobo Festival

About this event

The Gobo Festival is an annual festival of Kotake Hachiman Shrine, enshrined in Sono, Gobo City, Wakayama Prefecture, and is known as the largest autumn festival in the Hidaka region. Held every year on October 4 and 5, various performing arts and floats rooted in the local community are dedicated. A distinctive feature of the festival is that shrine parishioners dress as 'yakko' (servants), and each of the 10 parishioner groups performs festival dances such as noborizashi (banner balancing), kebi-odori, yakko-odori, and suzume-odori (sparrow dance), along with lion floats, and dynamic yotsu-daiko (four-sided drums). In particular, the 'yotsu-daiko,' where children with faces painted white strike drums while bending backwards on the drum platform, captivates many spectators. On October 4, the Yoimiya (eve of the festival), nine parishioner groups—excluding Gobo-cho—dedicate their performing arts and floats on the grounds of Kotake Hachiman Shrine, while Gobo-cho holds its own ritual at Hongwanji Hidaka Betsuin. On October 5, during the main festival (Honmatsuri), the mikoshi (portable shrine) departs from Kotake Hachiman Shrine toward the Otabisho (temporary shrine) in Tai, Mihama Town, with a shiokake (purification with seawater) ritual conducted along the way at Enjugahama beach. Afterwards, the mikoshi returns to the shrine, and in the afternoon, each group dedicates its performing arts and floats on the shrine grounds, with the festival continuing late into the night. From the early to late Edo period, the Gobo Festival adopted tools and performing arts that were popular in Kamigata (the Kyoto-Osaka region) and along the Seto Inland Sea coast, developing its distinctive current festival style. Its tools, performing arts, floats, yotsu-daiko, program sequence, and parishioner organizations have a recognized close connection with the local history, livelihoods, and devotional life. As an essential part of understanding the history of the Hidaka region and a classic example of festival rituals, it was designated as a Prefectural Intangible Folk Cultural Property on March 18, Reiwa 8 (2026).

Venue

Kotake Hachiman Shrine

642 Sono, Gobo, Wakayama 644-0002