Kumano Hayatama Matsuri

The Kumano Hayatama Matsuri is the grand annual festival of Kumano Hayatama Taisha in Shingū, Wakayama Prefecture, held each year on October 15th and 16th. It is a prestigious rite with over a thousand years of history, handed down at Kumano Hayatama Taisha—one of the three Kumano shrines that make up the UNESCO World Heritage "Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range."

The festival unfolds over two days. On the 15th, the "Shinme Togyo" rite sees a sacred horse, carrying the divine spirit, parade through the parishioners' district. The "Mifune Matsuri" boat festival on the 16th is the main highlight. In this dramatic riverborne procession, nine swift boats race around Mifune Island on the Kumano River, escorting the sacred vessel bearing the divine spirit. The swift boats speeding across the water, the spray, and the chants of the rowers fill Kumano's sacred river with fervor.

Kumano Hayatama Taisha has long been one of the centers of Kumano faith, famed for the "Kumano pilgrimage," a sacred site visited by countless people from retired emperors and aristocrats to commoners. Its grand festival, the Kumano Hayatama Matsuri, is deeply tied to the sacred flow of the Kumano River, distinguished by its expression of the deities' procession by boat. Designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property of Japan in 2016, it conveys the essence of Kumano's nature worship and festival culture to the present day.