Zuiki Matsuriずいき祭 · Zuiki Matsuri

What it is

The Zuiki Festival (ずいき祭, Zuiki Matsuri) is the name long used for the autumn festival of Kitano Tenmangū in Kyoto, a thanksgiving for the harvest. It is named after the zuiki mikoshi (ずいき神輿), a portable shrine whose roof is thatched with zuiki, the stems of the taro plant, and whose every part is decorated with vegetables, grains and flowers.

Dates and the 2027 change

The festival runs in early October. Until 2026 the pattern has been:

• October 1: the deity is carried in procession from the main shrine to its otabisho (temporary shrine) in Nishinokyō, and the zuiki mikoshi goes on display there.
• October 2–3: a tea offering and other rites at the otabisho.
• October 4: the return procession, while the zuiki mikoshi tours the Nishinokyō area.
• October 5: a closing rite and Yaotome dance at the main shrine.

In 2025 the shrine renamed its festival the Kitano Festival (北野祭, Kitano-sai), and in 2026 it was held as the "Kitano Festival Shinkōsai and Kankōsai" from October 1 to 5. According to the Kyoto Shimbun, from 2027 the shrine will move its outward procession to the second Sunday of September and the return to the third Sunday, closer to its annual rite on September 4. The zuiki mikoshi procession, made by local residents, will stay on October 4 under the name Zuiki Matsuri.

The zuiki mikoshi

The mikoshi is made by the Nishinokyō Zuiki Mikoshi Preservation Society, using crops mostly grown in members' own fields. Work begins on September 1 with the picking of globe amaranth flowers and takes about a month. The roof is thatched with taro stems, the ornaments at the corners and the pillars are made from produce such as red eggplant and five-colored peppers, and the side panels are remade each year with scenes from history or the news. Once the procession ends, the mikoshi is taken apart.

History

According to the shrine, the Kitano Festival began in 948, the year after Kitano Tenmangū was founded, and became an imperial festival in 987. It lapsed after the Ōnin War (1467–1477). Residents of Nishinokyō had long offered vegetables to the gods of the area, and over the centuries their offerings grew into the zuiki mikoshi; the Nakagyo Ward Office notes that it became a mikoshi about 400 years ago and took its present form about 200 years ago. The mikoshi was abolished in 1874 and revived in 1890, on condition that it parade outside the shrine's own procession. After the Second World War, the shrine kept its procession going under the name Zuiki Matsuri.

Getting there

Kyoto City Bus route 50 stops at Kitano Tenmangū-mae, right by the shrine. The otabisho is in Nishinokyō Mikoshioka-chō, Nakagyō Ward.