Agata Matsuri

The Agata Matsuri is a festival held at Agata Shrine in Uji, Kyoto Prefecture, late at night from June 5th into the 6th each year. Because the rites are conducted in total darkness with all lights extinguished, it is also called the "strange festival of the dark night," known as a mysterious festival coloring early summer in Uji.

The festival's defining feature is, as its name suggests, the "Bonten Togyo" procession carried out in deep darkness. In the small hours after the date changes, the town's lights are turned off, and a large sacred wand called the "bonten," to which the divine spirit has been transferred, is paraded through the town by bearers. In the pitch-black darkness, the "bunmawashi"—vigorously spinning the bonten—is performed, and the scene of only the murmur and fervor of the people filling the darkness is an unparalleled, dreamlike experience.

Agata Shrine is the guardian shrine of Uji, an ancient shrine with deep ties to Byōdō-in Temple. The Agata Matsuri draws attention as a precious festival that vividly preserves an ancient form of faith—welcoming the divine spirit within the extraordinary space of darkness. Despite the late hour, with night stalls lined up and crowds of worshippers, this festival is an early-summer tradition where mystery and vitality coexist, handed down in the World Heritage town of Uji.