Suwa Shrine Grand Annual Festival: Bange Autumn Festival

About this event

This is the annual festival of Suwa Shrine and also a celebration of crop harvest. It is said to have begun around 1921 (the 10th year of the Taisho era) as an autumn festival parading through town with constructed taikodai (drum floats). It is said that initially people dressed in costume to form processions and walked with the taikodai, and later, with the passage of time, began making and walking with costume parade floats. Today, 15 neighborhoods gather together to pull taikodai (Tosharekko) and costume parade floats, participating in a costume float contest. Starting in 2004 (Heisei 16), it was decided to hold the festival every year on the third Saturday and Sunday of September. However, because Shinto rituals must be avoided during the autumn equinoctial week (Aki Higan), it is moved up and held on the second Saturday and Sunday. At the Yoimatsuri (Saturday eve festival), a lantern procession and illuminated costume float parade are held, enlivening the festival with lantern light. At the Honmatsuri (Sunday main festival), a mikoshi procession is carried out, where the deity parades through town to purify the neighborhood. In the Chigo procession, children aged 3, 7, and 13 dress in costumes as children of the deity, visit the shrine to receive divine protection (Mikago), and parade together with the mikoshi. In the costume float contest, costume floats from 15 neighborhoods are showcased as everyone in town competes together.

Venue

Aizubange Town Office

3662 Ichinakasanbanko, Aizubange, Kawanuma District, Fukushima 969-6547