Toko-yasaka Shrine’s Festival is called the Tounin Festival because it is organized by four tounins. Tenno District (Katagami City) and Funakoshi District (Oga City) each provide two tounins (a principal tounin and an auxiliary tounin).
The festival is held on July 7 with a cattle rider from Tenno and a dancer of Kumo-mai (also called Cho-mai) from Funakoshi.
It is a precious festival that has been preserved from the old days in which we can see the fusion of the famous myth of the “slaying of an 8-branched giant snake” with the local worship of the deity of water among farmers of the Hachirogata area, as well as the tradition of the tounin system and recognizable traces of shermanism and annual rituals of augur divination.
Board of Education of Oga City
