Miyaura and Utai Districts Autumn Festival / Oyamazumi Shrine Ubusuna Grand Festival

About this event

This autumn festival celebrates bountiful grain harvests, likening this season to the deities changing their wardrobe. Held around August 22 of the lunar calendar, it celebrates rich harvests by likening this period, when daylight hours begin to shorten, to the deities changing their seasonal garments. On the day of the Grand Festival, lion dances (shishimai) and festival floats from each district across Omishima Island gather on the grounds of Oyamazumi Shrine to perform dedications. Following the procession of three portable shrines (mikoshi) and Shinto priests dressed in ancient ceremonial robes, an escort procession called "Otabi" travels the 4 km route from Oyamazumi Shrine to Mishima Shrine (Ohamaden) in Utai. Lion dances are dedicated from across the island, and the entire island participates as lion heads, lion dance ritual performers, and other procession members assemble in colorful garments spanning from the Heian period to the Yoshino period before proceeding along the more than 4 km sacred procession route, creating a magnificent spectacle reminiscent of a grand picture scroll. The Tsugijishi (acrobatic lion dance) of Miyaura is said to have started about 700 years ago when Monk Ippen visited Oyamazumi Shrine and stopped the villagers from offering animal sacrifices; it is distinctive for preserving archaic forms, such as Tengu oral recitations and performances where Otafuku and a monkey dance together alongside the lion.

Venue

Oyamazumi Shrine

3327 Miyaura, Omishima-cho, Imabari, Ehime 794-1393