Witnessing the annual festival and Shinto rituals of Ota Shrine in Setana

Witnessing the annual festival and Shinto rituals of Ota Shrine in Setana

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Ota Shrine, located in Setana in southern Hokkaido, is one that receives pilgrims from all over the country and was recently showcased on television for having “Japan’s most dangerous shrine-bound passage.” From June 27th to the 28th it held its massive annual two-day festival, the Retai-sai.

Ota Shrine’s hall of worship, built right next to the ocean. The foundations were laid around 500 years ago. A shrine with a history that was born when the founder of the Matsumae domain conferred its name in 1454.

At 5pm on the first day of the festival, Shinto rituals were conducted in the hall of worship by four chief priests.

After the prayer and the other ceremonies, the Matsumae Kagura, a traditional musical artform that has been passed down in the southern Hokkaido area for 350 years, is performed for about 30 minutes. The chief priests sing and dance to a flute and taiko performance as an offering to the gods. The ceremony concludes with the lion dance. The lion dance is a traditional artform where the priests wear lion masks on their heads while they pray for a fruitful year and perform a demon-banishing dance.

Although relatively few, there are street stalls lining the road that enliven the festivities each year.

From evening into the night there are singing performances and fireworks displays.

Now, at the beginning, I mentioned something about Ota Shrine’s “hall of worship,” which is to say there has to be a main hall somewhere. The main hall is near the summit of Mt. Ota, sitting just past a steep mountain trail that we had to climb using mountain-climbing-type equipment.

The entrance to the main hall, located along National Route 740 about 500 meters away from the hall itself.

Still over an hour away from the main hall, you have to scale a very steep slope with rope handholds and everything.

Standing before the final obstacle on an iron bridge. Once you’ve climbed this far, the view breaks open in front of you, and you can see Okushiri Island clearly off in the distance. Incidentally, the hall of worship I mentioned a while ago is here, and did you notice that you can just barely see the spot where the street stalls are lined up in front of the cape?

And the now we have the biggest obstacle: scrambling up a practically vertical, 90-degree rock wall using ropes and iron rings suspended from above. It supposedly has a height of 7 meters. The cave indicated by the white protruding flags is the goal.

The main hall is crammed into a narrow hole that is especially tight when there are 6 – 7 people inside.

The site of the main hall has an incredible view. You can just barely make out the hall of worship below. This place is also counted as one of southern Hokkaido’s five great sacred grounds, and apparently has served as a spot for praying for safety on the seas since ancient times.

During the festival, seven local youths dressed in white climbed the mountain and prayed at the shrine as part of a tradition known as Goyamakake.

At the moment when you’ve witnessed a traditional Japanese event and Shinto ritual, and have also managed to conquer the most dangerous trail in Japan, you just know that the Ota Shrine Retai-sai festival has to have something great in store for you. Afterwards, the southern Hokkaido region will be holding an annual festival overflowing with the unique character of each of its local areas. Why not join in on the festivities?

LEARN MORE ABOUT FESTIVALS IN HOKKAIDO

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