Guide to Noto’s Satoyama and Satoumi (Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems) by Photos and Movies
Name
Okuma Kabuto Festival
Address
Miyamae, Nakajima-machi, Nanao City
Category
Festival
Class
Custom
Designation
Kumakabuto 20th-day festival banner parade: National Important Intangible Folk Cultural Asset (January 1981)
Comment
Okuma Kabuto Festival is the shortened name for the Kumakabuto 20th-day festival banner parade that takes place on September 20 during the autumn festival of Kumakabuto-arakashihiko Shrine. This parade is jointly conducted by 19 branch shrines. Each branch shrine forms a procession of a portable shrine and a 20m-high crimson banner led by the deity Sarutahiko wearing a goblin mask, which wends its way to the main shrine to cries of “Iyasakasa!” The portable shrines and banners repeatedly advance and hit the hall of worship, and when they have returned three times they are placed at a specified location. After an offering ceremony, 20 Sarutahiko deities of the main shrine and branch shrines dance to the sounds of gongs and drums. This dance represents the joy of a good catch of fish. After that, the parade proceeds to Kamowara, 700m away from the shrine, and the banner is tilted closer to the ground. This is another highlight of the parade. According to Nihon-shoki, the oldest chronicles of Japan, Kumakabuto-arakashihiko was a member of the royal family of the Ara kingdom in southern Korea in the third to fourth centuries. Another deity, Tsunuga-arashitono, was a prince of Mimana in southern Korea, from where people came to Tsuruga Port in Fukui Prefecture in the fourth to sixth centuries. The rhythm of the gongs and drums accompanying the parade is very special. Some academics say that it was influenced by the culture of the Korean Peninsula. This festival shows the variety of cultures that Noto has preserved. It has been designated as a National Important Intangible Folk Cultural Asset.
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