About this event
"Horanenya," a traditional event celebrating the New Year in Bungotakada City, boasts a history of over 300 years since the mid-Edo period and is designated as a Selected Intangible Folk Cultural Property of Oita Prefecture. This festival prays for bountiful catches and safe voyages for the cargo ships that once transported tribute rice to Shimabara and Osaka. The Horai-sen boat, gorgeously decorated with big-catch flags and international flags, is rowed by young men wearing fundoshi loincloths, riding the high tide about 1 km upriver from Kotohira Shrine at the mouth of the Katsura River to Wakamiya Hachiman Shrine. Along the way upriver, young boys portraying Ebisu and Daikoku perform dances, and red-and-white celebratory mochi are tossed to the audience. A major highlight is when spectators offer celebratory gifts (shugi), and the young rowers dive into the freezing midwinter river and bravely swim to retrieve them.
Source website (Japanese) ↗Venue
Katsura River
Mori Katsura River, Bungotakada, Oita 879-0611
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