Roots of the Yatsushiro Myōken Festival

Roots of the Yatsushiro Myōken Festival
Roots of the Yatsushiro Myōken Festival
Roots of the Yatsushiro Myōken Festival
Roots of the Yatsushiro Myōken Festival

 Furufumoto Castle, then Yatsushiro Castle, is located in the Myōken Shrine area and was the center of politics, economics, and culture of Yatsushiro from the 14th century. With the many temples lining the streets of the surrounding area, it is considered to have been highly prosperous with the development of the temple city town and castle town by commercial and trading companies.
 It is not certain when the Yatsushiro Myōken Festival began, but according to ancient records, it appears that festivals were already being as much as 500 years ago, such as the mikoshi, or portable shrines, used to transfer a shintai (sacred object) to another shrine, and the Yabusame horseback archery festival.
 It is Tadaoki Hosokawa who moved to Yatsushiro Castle in 1632 that created the model for the current Shinkō procession transferring sacred objects to another shrine. When Tadaoki visited Myōken Shrine, it is said that he felt a mysterious connection to the fact that the pattern engraved on the sacred treasures was the same as that of the crest of the Hosokawa family. He offered mikoshi in which he himself drew decorative ceiling paintings, as well as shinme (sacred horses), and kazariuma (decorative horses) to the shrine.
 The Yatsushiro Myōken Festival, where there are a variety of performances that still continue today, is said to have had its start about 380 years ago.

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