Kasuga Wakamiya On-matsuri春日若宮おん祭 · Kasuga Wakamiya On-matsuri

When it is held

The Kasuga Wakamiya On-matsuri (春日若宮おん祭) is the festival of the Wakamiya, an auxiliary shrine of Kasuga Taisha in Nara. Its central rites are held from December 15 to 18 every year, and the main day is December 17. Preparatory ceremonies begin months earlier, from July onward.

December 17

• Midnight: Senkō no gi (遷幸の儀). In complete darkness, the deity is carried from the Wakamiya sanctuary to the angū (行宮), a temporary shrine at the Otabisho, more than 1 km along the approach. Two great pine torches and incense purify the way, priests surround the deity with sakaki branches and call out a continuous "Ō, ō", and musicians follow playing processional music. The journey takes about 50 minutes. Viewing areas are restricted, and photography and any light, even a flashlight, are forbidden. According to the shrine, this is the only surviving example of Japan's oldest form of moving a deity, the same form used at Ise Jingū until the Heian period.
• Noon: Owatari-shiki (お渡り式). This procession is not the deity's: it is the performers and participants of the festival going to pay their respects to the Wakamiya at the angū. About 1,000 people and 50 horses, in costumes from the Heian period onward, walk from the Nara Prefectural Office past Kintetsu Nara and JR Nara stations and up Sanjō-dōri to the Otabisho. On the way it stops for the Nandaimon kyōmyō no gi (南大門交名の儀) at the site of the old south gate of Kōfuku-ji, where the roll of participants is checked before the temple's shuto (衆徒), and for the Matsu-no-shita-shiki (松の下式) under the Yōgō pine (影向の松) inside the first torii, said to be the origin of the pine painted on the back wall of every Noh stage. Along the approach there are horse races and yabusame, archery on horseback, by children.
• About 2:30 pm: Otabisho-sai (御旅所祭), when the festival's ritual performing arts are offered before the angū.
• 11 pm: Kankō no gi (還幸の儀). The deity returns to its sanctuary in darkness, before midnight, so that the sanctuary is not left empty across two days.

History

The Wakamiya deity, Ame-no-Oshikumone-no-Mikoto, is the child of the deities of the third and fourth sanctuaries of Kasuga Taisha. In the Chōshō era (1132–1135), years of heavy rain and floods brought famine and epidemics, and in 1135 the court, led by the regent Fujiwara no Tadamichi, built a new sanctuary for the Wakamiya. In 1136 (Hōen 2), on the 17th day of the 9th lunar month, they welcomed the deity to Kasugano and held a festival. That was the first On-matsuri, held to pray for good harvests and the well-being of the people.

The rains are said to have stopped, and the festival has been held without a break for nearly 900 years. Around 1416 it moved to the 27th day of the 11th month, and since the Meiji era it has been fixed on December 17. The Owatari-shiki and the festival's ritual performing arts are a National Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property.

Tips

• The midnight and late-night transfers are sacred rites: stay in the viewing areas, keep silent and keep every light off.
• The Owatari-shiki is the easiest part to see, as it passes through central Nara from noon.
• Nara in mid-December is cold at night; dress warmly for the midnight rite.