Kinkasan Koganeyama Shrine Sacred Deer Antler Cutting Festival

About this event

Held every year in early October at Kinkasan Koganeyama Shrine, the 'Sacred Deer Antler Cutting Festival' is a dynamic and heroic event where the antlers of about 15 male deer living around the shrine grounds are cut. This is a very rare event performed only in Kinkasan and Nara within Japan. Antlers grow only on male deer; the old antlers shed in early spring and new ones begin to grow, growing several tens of centimeters in a few months, developing sharp tips and magnificent forms. During the rutting season, habituated male deer may pose a danger to people, which is why this event is held. The 'Shika Tomohana Tsuno-kai' rushing from nearby Ishinomaki and Koganeyama Shrine staff confront the stags dressed in shrine-crested happi coats, jikatabi (split-toe boots), and headbands, holding 'cross-shaped lassos' in hand. To prevent harm to tourists, the stags are driven from a temporary holding area to the antler-cutting arena, where about a dozen sekko (beaters) in white headbands and happi coats use cross lassos to catch the running stags by their antlers, or restrain their horns with bare hands before a Shinto priest cuts off the antlers—a truly thrilling spectacle. Admission for viewing is free.

Venue

Kinkasan Koganeyama Shrine

5 Kinkasan, Ayukawahama, Ishinomaki, Miyagi 986-2523