Seihaku Festival

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Seihaku festival (Seihakusai)

***** Location: Ishikawa prefecture
***** Season: Early Summer
***** Category: Observance

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Explanation

Seihakusai, seihaku sai 青柏祭 (せいはくさい) Seihaku festival
("Green oak Festival")

Dekayama Festival デカ山

May 3 till May 5

Annual festival at the shrine Ootokonushi Jinja in Nanao Town.

石川県七尾市／大地主神社



Seihakusai is a festival where three large floats (hikiyama 曳山) with huge wooden wheels are pulled through the town of Nanao, Ishikawa prefecture. In Nanao, they are called dekayama, large floats, because they are 20 m high and weigh as much as 20 tons. (They are the biggest floats of this kind in Japan.)

On an open stage on the float are decorations of popular traditional theater figures.
They have large levers of 8 meters with flags, where a group of young man stand to try and lift the front wheels for a curve.

The floats are decorated with green leaves of regional oak trees (kashiwa 柏), hence the name.

These floats are made by three villages, Uo-Machi, Fuchuu-Machi and Kai-Machi.
To pull these large floats through the small roads of the village is quite a job for the men in charge.

This festival is an important cultural property of Japan.
重要無形文化財






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Worldwide use


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Things found on the way




長まし Nagamashi sweets, eaten at the festival.
They help to ward off bad fortune.
These mochi ricecakes are made from local rice


. WASHOKU : Mochi cakes .


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HAIKU





青柏祭七尾乙女の瞳燃ゆ
seihakusai Nanao otome no hitomi moyuru

Seihaku Festival -
the eyes of the girls of Nanao
are shining

Ota Hideo (Yamaguchi)

source :　hot-ishikawa.jp
with more haiku about specialities from Ishikawa prefecture


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Related words

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