Guide to Noto’s Satoyama and Satoumi (Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems) by Photos and Movies
Name
Tomobata Festival
Address
Ogi, Noto Town
Category
Festival
Class
Custom
Age
20th century～21th century
Designation
Ogi Tomobata Festival: Ishikawa Prefecture Intangible Folk Cultural Asset (April 2006)
Comment
This is a spring festival held on the 2nd and 3rd of May at Mifune Shrine, close to Ogi Port. Nine boats raising a 20m banner with streamers of five colors form a parade on the sea to the sound of flutes and drums, while people bravely shout, “Yo! Yo!”. According to legend, when the warship of the deity Ôkuninushi-no-mikoto was sailing to fight in the Hokuriku region and got caught in a storm, he took refuge in a gulf of Noto Peninsula and prayed for a safe voyage. Then, the wind stopped and the rough waves became calm. At that time, the deity of Mifune Shrine, Sarutahiko-no-mikoto, was piloting the boat. Based on this legend, the people of the fishing village of Ogi hold the festival to pray for safe sailing and good catches of fish. In the main festival in March, boats with banners gather and sail around the port in a line, led by the Goza boat that carries a portable shrine that has been carried around the village. The portable shrine lands in the evening and is carried back to the shrine. The huge banner that is the symbol of the festival has its origin in a paper banner that children raised on a small boat during the mid-Meiji period. The banner is still made by children. Five hundred sheets of Mino paper are connected, decorated with gold and silver paper, and colored. This type of festival is unique to fishing villages on the Noto Peninsula, and has been designated as an Intangible Folk Cultural Asset by Ishikawa Prefecture.
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