Yachi Donga Festival

About this event

Boasting a 400-year tradition in Kahoku Town, Yamagata Prefecture, the annual festival of Yachi Hachimangu Shrine, "Yachi Donga Festival," is held every year on the Saturday, Sunday, and Monday that includes Respect for the Aged Day in September. This festival is a representative Shinto ritual of Yamagata where bugaku (court dance and music), mikoshi (portable shrines), and lively hayashi musical floats parade through the town. The name "Donga Festival" originates from the sound of the bugaku flutes and drums, which is said to sound like "ohyara donga." The core of the festival is "Hayashike Bugaku," a Nationally Designated Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property passed down for over 1,200 years by the Hayashi family, who serve as Shinto priests at Yachi Hachimangu Shrine. On the second day, there is the Mikoshi Kanyo Gyoretsu (portable shrine return procession) where the mikoshi returns from the otabisho (temporary resting place) to the main shrine. Led by the yakko (footmen) and followed by musical floats, this procession stretching over one kilometer is exceptionally gorgeous and spectacular. The festival operates under a system called "Dai-toban-sei once every three years," in which the former eight villages of Yachi are divided into three districts—North, Central, and South—and take turns managing the festival. This duty-rotation system strengthens local unity and serves as the keystone for passing traditions to the next generation. The hayashi musical floats originated as entertainments where danna-shu (wealthy patrons) such as safflower merchants competed in prosperity by carrying geiko (geisha) and shaku-fu (waitresses). Today, large trucks are used, and mascot characters are mounted on each float. The musical accompaniment, composed of flutes, drums, gongs, and shamisen, plays subtly different tones on each float. The heroic "Yakko Gyoretsu" (procession of attendants) is also one of the festival's main highlights; it was originally responsible for entertaining during the Sankin-kotai (alternate attendance) system, serving the role of entertaining samurai exhausted from long journeys. Composed of hasamibako (carrying boxes), tategasa (standing umbrellas), daigasa (large umbrellas), otorigem (large feather poles), and kumage (bear hair poles), the Yakko Gyoretsu attracts spectators with its distinctive walking style called "motasero." During the return procession on the final day, the moment of passing through the Great Torii gate of Yachi Hachimangu Shrine is the festival's greatest climax and is wrapped in the highest enthusiasm of the entire event.

Venue

Yachi Hachimangu Shrine

224 Yachi, Kahoku, Nishimurayama District, Yamagata 999-3511