Mibu no Hana Taue

Overview

Mibu no Hana Taue is a colorful agricultural rite centered on rice planting, held every year on the first Sunday of June in Mibu, Kitahiroshima Town, Yamagata District, Hiroshima Prefecture. It is a rice-cultivation ritual in which the field deity known as Sanbai is welcomed to pray for a good harvest that year. The sight of finely dressed saotome, or young female rice planters, setting out seedlings to the accompaniment of drums and flutes, while oxen adorned with brocade saddles harrow the paddy, radiates a splendor like a picture scroll unfolding across the fields.

This event belongs to the lineage of folk observances long handed down throughout the Chugoku region, known as hayashida or tabayashi, and it vividly conveys the form of agricultural culture as it existed before mechanization. The rarity of its content and scale has been highly valued, and it has been designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property of Japan and, in 2011, inscribed on the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage. It is nationally known as a rare example in which the everyday farm work of rice planting has been elevated into a grand event combining prayer, entertainment, and performing art.

History and Origins

Throughout the Chugoku region, folk observances in which large groups of people plant rice while beating drums, playing flutes, and singing rice-planting songs have long been handed down. These are called hayashida or tabayashi, and their history is said to reach back to the medieval period. Far from being mere farm work, they were rice-cultivation rituals that worshipped the field deity in prayer for the tranquility and abundance of the rice crop, and at the same time they served to console the people engaged in the hard labor of planting and functioned as one of the few forms of entertainment in the rural villages of the time.

Among such hayashida, especially grand ones were held in the Mibu area. Some of the great landowners of the district would gather many people to hold a splendid hayashida at the conclusion of the planting of their fields, and the Mibu hayashida became a major event known throughout the neighboring villages. The oxen taking part in this hayashida were adorned with lavish flower saddles and further decorated with artificial flowers, while finely dressed saotome planted seedlings to the sound of drums and flutes. Because this scene was so brilliant, it is said to have come to be called hana taue, meaning flower rice planting.

Pressed by the changes of the times, there was a period when the event was not held, but a movement arose to pass on to later generations this observance, which can be called the very origin of rice-cultivation culture in the rural villages. Centered on the Kawahigashi Dengaku troupe and the Mibu Dengaku troupe, local people and organizations of the town merchants took the lead in holding it every year. It is said that until the 1950s, several dozen decorated oxen would gather from across the Geihoku area, and the event was carried out on a scale exceeding two hundred people, including musicians and saotome, which conveys a sense of its former grandeur.

Such community-wide preservation activities, together with content that conveys the pre-mechanization agricultural culture of harrowing with oxen and planting by the hands of the saotome, and the scale of the event, were highly valued. On May 4, 1976, it was designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property of Japan. Furthermore, on November 27, 2011, it was inscribed on the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage, so that a locally rooted agricultural rite came to have its value recognized around the world.

Highlights

The Procession of Decorated Oxen Another star of the hana taue is the decorated ox. Black-haired oxen that have been trained for this day are adorned with golden saddles and artificial flowers. Gathering in the precincts of Mibu Shrine, the oxen are draped with red, blue, green, and yellow cloths, fitted with lavish brocade flower saddles shaped like helmets or dragons, and adorned with a red ornament called a kubidama, before parading through the shopping street toward the venue. The procession of more than ten decorated oxen is a magnificent sight and, as one of the highlights before the main event, draws many spectators along the route.

The Lead Ox The ox at the head of the procession is called the omouji, and to serve in this role is considered a great honor. Until a generation ago, a sturdy bull was to take on this role, but in recent years a well-built cow has come to fill it. In recent years, twelve or thirteen oxen take part from various areas within Kitahiroshima Town and from surrounding municipalities such as Akitakata City. Though this falls short of the several dozen of former times, their imposing figures still convey the vestiges of the agricultural culture of the past.

The Direction of the Sanbai The person who directs the rice planting is called the Sanbai and is also spoken of as the field deity, a central role of the event. Wearing a kasuri kimono and hakama with a sedge hat, the Sanbai strikes a sasara made from split soot-bamboo while singing rice-planting songs said to number in the hundreds, including morning songs, midday songs, and closing songs, to lead the hana taue. The Sanbai embodies the spirit of the hana taue, in which prayer and performing art are united.

The Planting by the Saotome The saotome are the women who set out into the paddy the seedlings raised in the nursery bed, and they are one of the leading roles of the hana taue. In a kasuri kimono with a sash, a spotted hand towel, and a sedge hat, wearing hand covers and leg covers, they enter the paddy. The sight of them lined up in a row planting seedlings while singing rice-planting songs in time with the Sanbai forms, together with the decorated oxen, a brilliant scroll of the countryside and has become an image that symbolizes this event.

The Skill of the Musicians The musicians are made up of large drums, small drums, hand gongs, and bamboo flutes, and they play lively in time with the direction of the Sanbai, who holds the sasara. Setting large drums at their waists and striking them all at once while greatly twisting their bodies to the beat produces a powerful sound, and from time to time the feat of tossing the drumsticks high and passing them to the neighboring player delights the onlookers. The performance, in which sound and movement become one, greatly heightens the excitement of the hana taue.

A Scroll Spread across the Fields The scene in which the harrowing by oxen, the songs of the Sanbai, the playing of the musicians, and the planting by the saotome are carried out all at once in a single paddy possesses a splendor not seen elsewhere. Quite unlike the mechanized farm work of the present day, an original landscape of rice planting, full of handwork and prayer, appears vividly in the early-summer countryside. This comprehensive scene may be called the greatest highlight of the hana taue.

Event Information and Access

Name Mibu no Hana Taue.

Location Mibu, Kitahiroshima Town, Yamagata District, Hiroshima Prefecture. A special venue at the north end of the Tokiwa Bridge is used for the hana taue.

Date It is held every year on the first Sunday of June. In 2026 it is scheduled for Sunday, June 7. Because the dates and details of the event may vary from year to year, it is advisable to confirm the latest schedule and whether the event will be held with the official information of Kitahiroshima Town or the tourism association.

Admission and Parking Viewing is free of charge. Parking is provided in the area around the venue, but as congestion is expected, the use of public transportation or of the transportation arranged by the organizers is recommended.

Preservation Body The center of preservation is the Mibu no Hana Taue Preservation Society, supported by constituent groups such as the Kawahigashi Dengaku troupe and the Mibu Dengaku troupe.

Cultural Property Designation It was designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property of Japan on May 4, 1976, and inscribed on the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage on November 27, 2011.

Around the Area

Kitahiroshima Town lies in the northwestern part of Hiroshima Prefecture, in the midst of the Chugoku Mountains, a town rich in nature and blessed with a cool climate and abundant water, forming a rice-growing region. Behind the way the hana taue has been handed down to the present lies a life centered on rice cultivation and the accumulation of the agricultural culture that has supported it. A visit in early summer allows one to experience this traditional observance, carried out amid fresh green rural scenery, together with the character of the land.

The Geihoku area, which includes Kitahiroshima Town, is also widely known as a land where kagura flourishes. Alongside the hana taue, kagura is representative of the performing-arts culture of this region, and spirited dances are performed at local festivals and events. By encountering kagura together with viewing the hana taue, one can more deeply savor the culture of prayer and performing art that lives on in the rural villages.

The surrounding area includes municipalities such as Akitakata City that carry on agricultural culture and traditional performing arts, and it is from such neighboring areas that the decorated oxen also take part. By touring the nature of the Chugoku Mountains and the culture of rice cultivation and performing art rooted there, one can truly feel that the hana taue is not an isolated event but an undertaking bound up with the life of the whole region.

Related Information

• Sanbai ... the role of the field deity who directs the hana taue, striking a sasara and singing rice-planting songs to lead the event.
• Saotome ... the women who plant seedlings in the paddy, taking a leading role in the hana taue in their striking attire of kasuri kimono and sedge hats.
• Decorated Oxen ... black-haired oxen adorned with brocade flower saddles and artificial flowers, which harrow the paddy and create a highlight of the procession.
• Hayashida and Tabayashi ... folk observances handed down throughout the Chugoku region in which rice is planted to musical accompaniment, the parent of the hana taue.
• Kawahigashi Dengaku Troupe and Mibu Dengaku Troupe ... central groups that make up the Mibu no Hana Taue Preservation Society and carry on the preservation and transmission of the event.
• UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage ... Mibu no Hana Taue was inscribed in 2011, and it is also an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property of Japan.

← Explore More Festivals