The main gate of Fukoji Temple is said to be a replica of the Yomeimon Gate of Nikko Toshogu Shrine, and was commissioned by the temple’s parishioners through donations, so they must have been very wealthy at the time. Moreover, it was built to withstand heavy snowfall of up to 3 meters. Therefore, many support beams are placed at the eaves to withstand the weight of the snow.
fukou temple (1)
fukou temple (2)
More famous here is the Bishamondo Naked Pushing Festival held in early March. When I visited, it was just two days before the festival, and preparations were in full swing. The young men were in the process of carrying a large candle weighing 50 kg. During the festival, they move around carrying the candle, so they are covered in hot wax.
fukou temple (3)
fukou temple (4)
fukou temple (5)
big candles
fukou temple
Bishamondo Temple was built by Sakanoue no Tamuramaro, who pacified Tohoku during the Heian period, to pray for victory and a bountiful harvest. In the past, the statue of Bishamonten was only unveiled during the New Year’s visit, and the festival originated from people pushing and shoving to get to the temple as quickly as possible. However, nowadays, one can’t help but think that there’s no need to strip naked, perform water rituals, and then push and shove each other naked inside a temple. In the Tohoku region, winter naked festivals are still held at temples, shrine and others in various places, and usually the main event is a scramble to grab the first good fortune of the new year. However, here it’s simply a matter of pushing and shoving, so unless you participate, you really won’t understand how everyone gets into a trance-like state. Despite attracting many visitors in the midst of a snowstorm exceeding 3 meters, it might be wiser to watch the live stream on YouTube.
Source: @bisyamondo
Detour
A bronze statue of Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka, who hails from this region, stands proudly in front of east side of Urasa Station. The fact that it has a snow-sheltering roof above it is typical of a snowy region. Just like Fukoji Temple, on the west side of the station there is Ezumiya, which makes bento boxes to order. Even though they are bento boxes, the rice is from Uonuma, so it’s delicious.
The dance, representing cultivating the fields in the face of the harsh natural environment and praying for a good harvest, has been designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property of Japan. The name Enburi comes from the name of a farm tool used to plow fields. The event is scheduled to be held every year from February 17th to 20th, in the middle of the coldest weather, making it an incredibly spirited time to awaken spring. The dancer wears a eboshi hat shaped like a horse’s head, and dances magnificently, swinging his head from side to side. This can also be seen in hip-hop dance, which includes snake choreography.
kojokaku (3)
kojokaku (4)
8000 brewery (9)eboshi hat
8000 brewery (7)
8000 brewery (6)eboshi hat
Teams are formed in each region and the tunes and movements are passed down. There are two types of Enburi: the slow and graceful “Naga-enburi” and the fast and heroic “Dosai-enburi.” In the former, one dancer wears an eboshi hat with a peony flower and other dancers surround him performing different dances, while in the latter, all dancers wear eboshi hats with five-colored tassels and perform the same dance. The dance movements represent the entire process of rice farming, from sowing seeds in the seedbed, to plowing the field with a horse, planting the rice, and finally harvesting. Furthermore, children (and occasionally the elderly) perform blessing performance, which is positioned as something to enjoy during breaks from farm work. The performance includes dancing with hoops that have coins attached to them, dancing with pine branches, and sea bream fishing. It seems that spectators sometimes attach gift money to the end of fishing hooks.
<Dosai-Enburi by Nukatsuka team>
<Naga-Enburi by Nakaibayashi team>
The teams are invited to perform Enburi at various stores and can be seen all over town during the festival. The Tourist Association has also created a separate event program and arranged a public stage. The highlight of this program is the “Garden Enburi” which takes place in the courtyard of Kōjōkaku, a mansion of a former financial clique family in Hachinohe that is now registered as tangible cultural property, located in the center of Hachinohe. You can watch the evening Enburi while sipping on sweet half sake and rice cracker soup in a tatami room. Reserved seats are sold at the convenience store Lawson from one month in advance, so if you want to watch the show, you should definitely reserve a seat in the first row. The competition for the first row seats is fierce. If you’re in the first row luckily, you can set up a video tripod. Heat packs are distributed to all audience and there is a bonfire, but in any case, you’ll be watching outside in the cold, so you’ll need to wear clothes to protect yourself from the extreme cold.
kojokaku (1)entrance
kojokaku (2)
kojokaku (5)
kojokaku (6)
garden enburi at kojokaku (1)
garden enburi at kojokaku (2)
garden enburi at kojokaku (3)
garden enburi at kojokaku (4)
garden enburi at kojokaku (5)
garden enburi at kojokaku (6)
garden enburi at kojokaku (7)
garden enburi at kojokaku (8)break
garden enburi at kojokaku (10)
garden enburi at kojokaku (12)
garden enburi at kojokaku (9)
The second recommendation is the “Brewery Storehouse Enburi” that Hachinohe Shuzo(Brewery) accepts only during this season as a set with a tour of the brewery. Online reservations are required, but there is less competition than for the Garden Enburi. Here, in a warm room, you can enjoy some excellent sake while watching the dancers perform right in front of you, almost touching them, making it the perfect opportunity to see their intricate movements. During this period, several tours are scheduled, so you can check out both Naka-enburi and Dosai-enburi. It seems that the brewers at this brewery are also participating in one of the groups. To get to Hachinohe Shuzo( Brewery), you’ll need to take the JR Hachinohe Line from Hachinohe Station to Mutsuminato Station, or take a bus from downtown Hachinohe, but it’s quite close.
enburi at brewery (4)
enburi at brewery (5)
enburi at brewery (6)
enburi at brewery (2)
enburi at brewery (3)
<Brewery storehouse Enburi(Dosai) by Hashikami-Toriyabe team>
Sake brewing is also at its peak at this time of year, so we recommend visiting the two major sake breweries: Hachinohe Shuzo, where you can enjoy the Brewery storehouse Enburi performance, and Hachinohe Shurui, located in the city center and with a modern shop building. Buying sake is a bulky process, but Hachinohe Shurui is surprisingly good at shipping sake with other manufacturers at a low price. I bought two 1.8L bottles at Hachinohe Shurui and had them delivered.
<Hachinohe Shuzo>
8000 brewery (1)entrance
8000 brewery (2)
8000 brewery (8)
8000 brewery (3)
8000 brewery (4)ridge tag
8000 brewery (5)account book in Meiji era
8000 brewery (10)
8000 brewery (11)
<Hachinohe Shurui>
8 tsuru brewery (1)shop
8 tsuru brewery (6)inside shop
8 tsuru brewery (5)
8 tsuru brewery (2)entrance
8 tsuru brewery (4)water
8 tsuru brewery (3)malt production room
Detour
Hachinohe Shuzo is located near JR Mutsuminato Station. It is close to the Tatehana Wharf where the huge and chaotic morning market is held, but of course the market is not open in the middle of winter (though it does have a special market during the New Year). However, in front of the station, there is a fish and vegetable market in a building that is open from morning until noon, and everything is very cheap. Sashimi(sliced raw fish) is also packaged in individual portions, so you can choose what you like, and if you order additional rice and miso soup at a table in the back, you can have a decent meal.
mutsu-minato (10)station monument
mutsu-minato (11)market
mutsu-minato (12)breakfast at market
Also nearby is Minato Shokudo(dining room), a popular restaurant on social media, where you can try their seasoned flounder rice bowl, although you may have to wait in line (in fact, if you write your name in a notebook at the reception desk, they will call you on your mobile phone when it is your turn). Apparently, in good seasons, you may have to wait 2-3 hours, but this was my fourth visit to Hachinohe and the first time I tried it, it was mid-winter, so I only had to wait an hour. Most people arrive on the JR Hachinohe Line and wait in line, and when you board the two-car train at Hachinohe Station, you have to get in directly behind the driver’s seat in the front car because Mutsuminato Station is an unmanned station and the driver of the one-man train also checks the tickets of passengers getting off from inside the train. I didn’t notice it at first, and assumed that all the doors would open if I pressed the button beside doors when I got to the station, but I was surprised when everyone moved to the front. Only one door in the front car opened because of the ticket gate. I later found out that all of these people were heading to Minato Shokudo! After getting off at the unmanned station, I made a furious dash and overtook about 10 people, but the enemy came in a group of several people, and one of the faster runners got in line first, and the person I had overtaken got in front of the line.
mutsu-minato (1)for Jaws station
mutsu-minato (2)queue
There was nothing to do during the hour-long wait, so I decided to take a walk to the free observation tower (Grette Tower Minato) on the cape beyond Tatehana Wharf and stared blankly at Hachinohe Port, which turned out to be quite enjoyable. To the east we could see Kabushima island, where black-tailed gulls had not yet arrived because it was not yet spring, and to the west we could see the majestic snow-capped Mount Hakkoda, and to the south we could see downtown Hachinohe and the forest of Chojayama Sinra Shrine, which is the venue for the polo matches at the summer Sansha Festival, as if they were right in front of us, and the hour passed by in the blink of an eye. Needless to say, the long-awaited seasoned flounder rice bowl was as delicious as SNS had said. For an additional 200 yen, you can have the miso soup turned into Hachinohe’s specialty rice cracker soup, but there’s no rice cracker soup with a more delicious broth than this one, so be sure to order it. After that, we once again made a mad dash to Brewery storehouse Enburi, for which we had a reservation starting at 2 p.m.
mutsu-minato (4)
mutsu-minato (5)harber
mutsu-minato (3)kabushima island
mutsu-minato (6)hakkoda mountains
mutsu-minato (8)cafeteria
mutsu-minato (7)cafeteria
mutsu-minato (9)cafeteria
mutsu-minato (10)cafeteria
Go back to itinerary(Hachinohe where you can enjoy the four seasons)Go back to itinerary(Colorful and spiritual Festival in each region)
Arrive into Chichibu city early, visit Chichibu Shrine (be sure to check out the carvings and the parents’ warning signboard), and select the Chichibu meisen (silk fabric with an innovative design that was popular during the Taisho era). Let’s simulate nighttime behavior. If you don’t decide on your route back to the inn and the final time in advance, you won’t really be able to return the inn.
chichibu shrine1
chichibu shrine2
chichibu shrine3
chichibu shrine4
chichibu shrine5 chained dragon
chichibu shrine6 three monkeys with opposit action against those at Nikko-Toshogu
chichibu shrine8 lever
chichibu shrine7 knowledge of parents
“Kledge of paents”
>Don’t leave your skin unattended to babies
>Don’t leave your hands unattended to young children
>Don’t leave your eyes off your child
>Don’t leave your mind from young people
fes1
fes2
fes7 paris collection
fes8
fes9 waitig for kabuki
fes10 kabuki
fes11 kabuki wisteria daughter
fes12 old street of wholesaler
fes13 chichibu meisen
fes14
The operation plan for all the festival cars is open, just like a railway schedule, so you don’t have to worry about when and where they will change direction, where they will stop and stay, and when and where the children’s kabuki on the festival cars will be done. If you want to see the festival cars with fireworks in the background in the middle of the night, be sure to read the schedule.
operation plan of festival cars
chichibu festival cars road map
A festival car does not have a steering wheel like a car, so it can only move in a straight line. How do it change direction at crossroads? There will be no forceful change of direction like one at the Kyoto Gion Festival does. The method is to use a lever to raise it, attach a rotating shaft underneath it, and then change direction. The work before and after rotation is a bit tedious. On the other hand, when pulling straight, it is much rougher than the Kyoto.
fes3
fes4 lever
fes5 lever
fes6 lever for turn
In the middle of the night, as festival cars cross the railroad crossing befor going up Dango sloop, the railroad overhead wires are cut off for about two hours. How bold!
preparation to remove overhead wire
dango sloop beyond the railway crossing
fes17 toward dango sloop
At the end, as all the festival cars line up at the Otabisho, the fireworks go off directly overhead, and you’ll be more overwhelmed by the huge sound than the gaiety of festival cars decorated with lights. However, please note that seats inside the Otabisho are reserved in advance, and the fireworks are going off behind your head.
fes16
fes18
fes19 square of city hole and goal
There is only one free place in Chichibu Park where you can watch the festival cars panting up Dango sloop and the fireworks in the back, and you might feel scared of crowd like sad accident at Soul during Halloween week. If fireworks are important to you, give up on Otabisho, but anywhere along National Route 140 is the best place because you can see clearly and it’s right next to the launch site.
Steam locomotives run on holidays and special days
