Hamaori-sai

The Hamaori Festival is a dawn festival that heralds the arrival of summer on the Shonan coast, held each year in the early morning of Marine Day, the third Monday of July, on the Nishihama Beach of Chigasaki in Kanagawa Prefecture. As dawn breaks, some forty portable shrines of all sizes gather on the beach from the thirty-four shrines enshrined in the town of Samukawa and the city of Chigasaki, and across the sunlit sands rings the vigorous cry unique to Soshu-style shrine bearing, dokkoi, dokkoi.

From the dark hours before dawn the portable shrines stream one after another toward the beach, and the sight of the rites being conducted against the brightening morning sea holds a solemnity and a dynamism found in no other festival. The scene of the portable shrines entering the sea in a purification rite is especially well known, and for the people of the region it has become a seasonal tradition that makes them feel the true beginning of summer. In 1978 the festival was designated an Intangible Folk Cultural Property of Kanagawa Prefecture and was also chosen among the Fifty Selected Festivals of Kanagawa, making it a representative traditional event of the Shonan area.

History and Origins

The origins of the Hamaori Festival lie in the purification rites that the shrines of the Chigasaki and Samukawa area have long performed by the sea. The faith of misogi-harae, purifying the body with seawater and welcoming the portable shrines to the beach to cleanse them, forms the very foundation of this festival. The practice of borrowing the power of the sea in the height of summer to purify body and mind of defilement, and of praying for the peace and abundance of the region, reflects the very life of the Shonan people, who have lived in deep connection with the sea.

The festival day was originally set on the twenty-ninth day of the sixth month of the old lunar calendar. This date overlapped with the season of the summer purification rite, and it strongly carried the meaning of cleansing away the defilements accumulated over half a year. In a form characteristic of a region close to the sea, the seaside purification was handed down as an important summer rite.

In 1876, the festival day was changed to July 15, and it came to be conducted as a joint ceremony with Samukawa Shrine. The prototype of the present joint ceremony, in which several neighboring shrines gather together and bring their portable shrines to the beach, was shaped during this period. Later there were times when the shrines held their festivals separately, but they came once again to be conducted jointly, and the magnificent form in which numerous portable shrines gather on the beach became firmly established.

Today the date is set on Marine Day, the third Monday of July, and about forty portable shrines from the thirty-four shrines of Samukawa and Chigasaki, beginning with Samukawa Shrine, gather on Nishihama Beach in Chigasaki. Through the festival, prayers are offered for the development of local industry and for safety at sea, and beyond being a mere traditional event, it serves as an occasion to reaffirm the solidarity of a community that lives together with the sea. The 1978 designation as a prefectural Intangible Folk Cultural Property was the result of high esteem for this history and regional character.

Highlights

The Gathering of Shrines Before Dawn The greatest highlight of the Hamaori Festival is the sight of the portable shrines gathering on the beach one after another from before dawn while it is still dark. The first shrine arrives at the site around four in the morning. The shrines that have set out from each shrine head for the beach through the darkness with their cries, and by the time the sky begins to whiten some forty of them stand ranged upon the sands. The sight of the shrines assembling under a sky that grows lighter moment by moment is a mystical scene found only at this festival.

Entering the Sea for Purification The purification rite in which the portable shrines are carried into the sea is the scene that symbolizes the Hamaori Festival. The bearers advance to the water's edge with the shrines on their shoulders and cleanse both the shrines and themselves with seawater. It is the moment when the festival's essential meaning of purifying defilement through the power of the sea appears most vividly, and the sight of the shrines entering the sea amid the spray draws many spectators.

The Cry of the Soshu Shrine The cry dokkoi, dokkoi is unique to Soshu-style shrine bearing and sustains the fervor of the Hamaori Festival. The Soshu manner of bearing, swinging the shrine greatly up and down, is spirited, and the cry echoing across the sands together with the unity of the bearers fills the dawn coast with the exhilaration of the festival.

The Assembly of Some Forty Shrines The sight of about forty portable shrines gathering together from the thirty-four shrines of Samukawa and Chigasaki is a scale rarely seen elsewhere. The distinctive shrines of each community standing ranged upon the sands make a magnificent view, and there is also the pleasure of comparing the differences in the decoration of the shrines and the manner of bearing handed down in each locality.

The Joint Festival From seven in the morning, the joint festival of the Hamaori Festival is conducted before the assembled shrines. In this rite performed jointly by many shrines, prayers are offered for the development of local industry and for safety at sea. It is precisely this joint festival, in which the shrines transcend their individual bounds to offer prayer as a single festival, that conveys to the present day the form of the Hamaori Festival handed down since the Meiji era.

The Otabisho Rite and the Return After the joint festival, around ten fifteen in the morning the otabisho rite is conducted, and the shrines set out on their return to each shrine. The sight of a festival that began before dawn coming full circle within the morning, with the bearers reluctantly leaving the beach, is a deeply impressive scene where the start of a summer day and the lingering afterglow of the festival cross paths.

Event Information

• Date: Early morning of Marine Day, the third Monday of July, each year (July 20 in 2026)
• Venue: Nishihama Beach, Chigasaki (west of Chigasaki Fishing Port)
• Main Flow: Departure rite around 2:30 a.m. at Samukawa Shrine, first shrine entering around 4:00 a.m., the joint festival from 7:00 a.m., and the otabisho rite around 10:15 a.m.
• Participating Shrines: Thirty-four shrines of Samukawa town and Chigasaki city
• Number of Shrines: About forty of all sizes
• Cultural Property: Intangible Folk Cultural Property of Kanagawa Prefecture (designated 1978); chosen among the Fifty Selected Festivals of Kanagawa

Related Events and Nearby Places

One of the central bearers of the Hamaori Festival is Samukawa Shrine, known as the first shrine of Sagami Province. It is an ancient shrine that draws wide faith as the only guardian deity of happo-yoke, protection from misfortune in all directions, in the country, and at the Hamaori Festival the departure rite is conducted there around 2:30 a.m. before the shrine heads for the beach. It is a famous shrine visited by many worshippers on days other than the festival as well, and not a few people visit it together with the Hamaori Festival.

Tsurumine Hachimangu in Chigasaki is one of the shrines that sends a portable shrine to the Hamaori Festival, and as the tutelary shrine of Shonan Chigasaki it is regarded as a heartland of Hachiman faith. With its long approach and its historic hall, it has long been cherished as the local guardian deity. Through the Hamaori Festival, one can sense the connection between such local shrines and life by the sea.

Nishihama Beach, the venue, is one of the representative beaches of Shonan and is crowded with many bathers in summer. On the day of the festival, the sands are filled with portable shrines, bearers, and spectators, and the beach is transformed into a festival space utterly different from its everyday self. Being able to savor the sea and the festival at once in the clear air of early morning is a charm unique to this festival.

Related Information

• Month: July (Marine Day, the third Monday)
• Prefecture and Region: Chigasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture; Kanto region
• Origin: A seaside purification rite; from the twenty-ninth day of the sixth lunar month to July 15 in 1876, and now on Marine Day
• Scale: Thirty-four shrines and about forty portable shrines gather on Nishihama Beach in Chigasaki
• Cultural Property: Intangible Folk Cultural Property of Kanagawa Prefecture (designated 1978); Fifty Selected Festivals of Kanagawa
• Features: A dawn festival known for the shrines entering the sea in purification and for the dokkoi cry of Soshu-style shrine bearing

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