Kangensai

The Kangensai is a maritime festival held at Itsukushima Shrine, a World Heritage Site in Hatsukaichi, Hiroshima Prefecture, on the 17th day of the sixth lunar month (now around July to August). It is known as an elegant and solemn festival that carries on, as a Shinto rite, the "kangen pastime"—the courtly music enjoyed by Heian-period aristocrats during boating excursions.

The festival's defining feature is that a sacred barge (gozabune) bearing the divine spirit crosses Hiroshima Bay to the strains of gagaku court music. After sunset, rowers propel with their oars the sacred barge illuminated by lantern light. The ethereal tones of kangen music played on the shō, hichiriki, and ryūteki resound over the dark sea, and together with the countless lights reflected on the water's surface, an elegant scene unfolds like a Heian court picture-scroll.

The Kangensai is said to derive from Taira no Kiyomori's deep reverence for Itsukushima Shrine and his introduction of the capital's aristocratic culture to the shrine, boasting around 850 years of history. Against the backdrop of the vermilion great torii gate floating on the sea and the shrine buildings, this dreamlike festival woven by lights and gagaku is a rite unique to the island of Miyajima in the Seto Inland Sea. Counted among Japan's three great boat rites, it is handed down as an unparalleled and precious festival fusing the sea, faith, and court culture.