Sunari Festival

Overview

Sunari Matsuri is the annual festival of Tomiyoshi-Takehaya Shrine and Hachiken Shrine in Sunari, Kanie Town, Ama District, Aichi Prefecture, a river festival held by floating boats on the Kanie River. Against the background of belief in Gozu Tenno, prayed to for warding off epidemics, it has conveyed some 400 years of history. Its greatest highlights are the fantastical and gorgeous scenes in which a makiwara-bune boat hung with many lanterns slowly ascends the Kanie River at the evening festival on the first Saturday of August, and a danjiri-bune boat bearing dolls does so at the morning festival the following Sunday, both playing festival music.

The festival is centered on two events, the danjiri-bune boat event and the miyoshi-nagashi reed-floating rite, and because roughly 100 days pass from the first event to the last, it is also called the 100-day festival. The way this series of events has been handed down while preserving tradition was highly valued, and it was designated an important intangible folk cultural property of Japan in 2012 and inscribed on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list as one of the Yama, Hoko, Yatai float events in 2016. Known nationwide as a representative river festival of the Owari region, it draws many spectators.

History and Origins

Tomiyoshi-Takehaya Shrine and Hachiken Shrine, where the Sunari Matsuri is held, form a pair of shrines also called Sunari Shrine and are the tutelary deities of the Sunari district. According to shrine tradition, they were founded in 733 by the monk Gyoki as the guardian shrine of Kaniezan Joraku-ji temple, repaired by Kiso Yoshinaka in 1182, and rebuilt by Oda Nobunaga in 1548. The main halls of both shrines are Muromachi-period architecture, and in 1953 the main halls and their ridge tags were designated important cultural properties of Japan. The deity of Tomiyoshi-Takehaya Shrine is Susanoo-no-Mikoto, and the deities of Hachiken Shrine are the sacred spirit of Kusanagi and the five deities of Atsuta.

The Sunari Matsuri itself is said to have more than 400 years of history as the festival of these shrines, held to pray for warding off epidemics and for a bountiful harvest. Already in the Edo period it was carried out as a festival that floated boats on the river, and the belief in Tenno, which enshrines Gozu Tenno as a deity of pestilence and seeks to quell disaster through its spiritual power, runs at the root of the festival. Enshrining Susanoo-no-Mikoto as the deity is also deeply connected to this belief in Tenno.

At the heart of the festival are the danjiri-bune boat event and the miyoshi-nagashi rite. In the boat event, the evening festival is held on the first Saturday of August and the morning festival the following Sunday, with the festival boats ascending the Kanie River from Kazari Bridge to Tenno Bridge. The miyoshi-nagashi, on the other hand, enshrines the reeds growing in the river as a sacred object, seals into them the impurity and disaster of the year, and floats them away, praying for people's rich lives, a rite that symbolizes the belief in Tenno that seeks to ward off epidemics. The combination of these two events makes the Sunari Matsuri a festival that holds both splendor and solemnity.

The series of events is carried out over a long stretch of time. One week before the morning festival, young men in white robes row down to the mouth of the Kanie River to cut the reeds that will form the sacred object, in a rite called yoshi-kari. The cut reeds are enshrined as the sacred object, and floated away carrying the disaster early on the morning after the morning festival, which is the miyoshi-nagashi. In the past they were actually released into the river, but today they are floated and then enshrined on a rack at the shrine in the tana-agari, and 75 days later taken down and burned in the tana-oroshi, after which all the events end. This long chain of ritual events is the origin of the name 100-day festival.

Highlights

The lantern-lit makiwara-bune of the evening festival
The most fantastical part of the Sunari Matsuri is the makiwara-bune ascending the Kanie River at the evening festival on the first Saturday of August. The boat, hung with countless lanterns in a semicircle, advances slowly over the dark river to festival music in breathtaking beauty, and the lights reflected on the water color the night of Kanie. It is the scene that symbolizes the Sunari Matsuri, and many spectators come to see it.

The number of lanterns representing the calendar
The number of lanterns adorning the makiwara-bune carries meaning. The makiwara lanterns arranged in a semicircle number 365, representing the days of the year; the lanterns arranged vertically on the central nyoi-dake number 12, the months of the year (13 in a leap year); and the hozuki lanterns across the front of the boat number 30, the days of a month. Each light symbolizes the calendar, and the whole boat is contrived to reflect the flow of a year's time.

The doll-bearing danjiri-bune of the morning festival
At the morning festival the following Sunday, the mood changes from the evening's makiwara-bune, and a danjiri-bune bearing dolls of male and female deities appears. The festival boat, adorned with plum and cherry blossoms and carrying young child attendants, heads for Tenno Bridge playing festival music, its splendor standing out in the light of day. Being able to savor the different expressions of the boats in the evening and the morning is a charm unique to this festival.

The miyoshi-nagashi that entrusts disaster to the reeds
Paired with the splendor of the boats is the quietly conducted miyoshi-nagashi. This rite, which makes river reeds a sacred object and floats them away sealed with the year's impurity and disaster, holds the very core of the belief in Tenno that prays for warding off epidemics. The way it is carried out through a long process of tana-agari and tana-oroshi well expresses the depth of faith in the Sunari Matsuri.

The Miyoshi Bridge that rises only for the festival boats
At the Sunari Matsuri, one highlight is the Miyoshi Bridge, an unusual lift bridge whose deck is raised only when the makiwara-bune and danjiri-bune pass. The mechanism, by which the bridge rises as a boat approaches and lowers again once it passes, shows how the very shape of the town has been contrived for the festival.

The chain of events over about 100 days
The Sunari Matsuri is not a festival of only the two days of the evening and morning festivals. A series of rites continues over about 100 days from early July to late October, with the festival handed down from the reed-cutting to the miyoshi-nagashi, the tana-agari, and the tana-oroshi 75 days later. This long passage of time is itself the essence of the Sunari Matsuri, giving a sense that the community marks its year together with the festival.

Event Information and Access

• Dates: The boat event holds the evening festival on the first Saturday of August each year and the morning festival the following Sunday (the whole ritual runs about 100 days from early July to late October)
• Evening festival: From around 7:30 p.m. (the lantern-lit makiwara-bune ascends the Kanie River)
• Morning festival: From around 9:00 a.m. (the doll-bearing danjiri-bune ascends)
• Location: Around Tomiyoshi-Takehaya Shrine and Hachiken Shrine (Sunari Shrine) and the Kanie River (1363 Kadoyashiki-kami, Sunari, Kanie Town, Ama District, Aichi Prefecture)
• Custodian body: Sunari Cultural Property Protection Committee
• Inquiries and access: Kanie Town Board of Education, and others. The viewing center is along the Kanie River from Kazari Bridge to Tenno Bridge

Around the Area

Very close to Sunari Shrine stands Kaniezan Joraku-ji Ryusho-in. Its principal image, a wooden standing statue of the eleven-headed Kannon, is a national important cultural property and a hidden Buddha revealed once every 60 years, but it is shown on the 18th of each month (except January and February) with the help of guide volunteers, and its grounds hold the Dainichi hall associated with Tomoe Gozen and a great ginkgo said to have been planted by Hideyoshi.

Kanie Town is blessed with the subsoil water of the Kiso and Shonai rivers and was a land where sake brewing flourished from the Edo period into the Meiji era. Sake breweries still remain along the Kanie River, and visiting a sake brewery lets you experience the brewing culture nurtured by Kanie, a town of waterways. It is a sight worth visiting before or after the festival.

In the Sunari district remains the Nobunaga Kaido, said to be the road the young Oda Nobunaga took when attacking Kiyosu, with temples, shrines, and sake breweries dotting the roadside. Walking the narrow old road lets you feel the romance of the history through which the warlords of the Warring States period raced, and savor the atmosphere of an old Owari town together with the festival.

Related Information

• Month: August (evening and morning festivals; the whole ritual runs early July to late October)
• Region: Sunari, Kanie Town, Ama District, Aichi Prefecture
• Shrines: Tomiyoshi-Takehaya Shrine and Hachiken Shrine (Sunari Shrine; deities include Susanoo-no-Mikoto)
• Origin: A river festival derived from belief in Gozu Tenno, prayed to for warding off epidemics (about 400 years of history)
• Alternative name: 100-day festival (because the series of rites extends about 100 days)
• Cultural property: Designated an important intangible folk cultural property of Japan in 2012, inscribed on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list as one of the Yama, Hoko, Yatai float events in 2016

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