Ogre dancers at Taga Taisha Setsubun. Click image to see more photos.

February 3 is the Setsubun Festival at many temples and shrines in Japan. It marks the beginning of spring according to the lunar calendar. They yell, “Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!” (鬼は外! 福は内!) while they throw beans at ogre to eliminate the evil (oni) of the previous year and bring in good fortune (fuku).

In Shiga Prefecture, the most impressive Setsubun festival is held at Taga Taisha Shrine in Taga town. They have impressive ogre (called oni in Japanese) dancers from Shimane Prefecture to act as the demons to chase away during the festival. The bean-throwing is called mame-maki. They will hold two mame-maki sessions on Feb. 3, at 11 am and 2 pm. Expect a large crowd.

It starts with a ceremony in the shrine’s worship hall. Then a dramatic performance by the ogre on stage where they are chased away by priests throwing beans at them. The main event is when over a hundred people born in the year of the dragon begin to throw soybeans and mochi to the crowd. The soybeans are thrown in little paper bags, so you can still pick them up and eat them even if they fall to the ground. But the mochi are hard as a rock, so watch out. The bean-throwing is fun, but potentially dangerous with beans or mochi hitting your face/head and people pushing you around. Taking pictures is pretty risky as well. One mochi even hit my camera lens. Fortunately, no damage. You should always look up and see where the mochi and beans are flying.

Taga Taisha is near Taga Taisha-mae Station on the Ohmi Railways Taga Line. Google Map here.

Mame-maki at Taga Taisha.

Taga Taisha Setsubun official Website: http://www.tagataisya.or.jp/info/setubun/index2.html
More photos: http://photoguide.jp/pix/thumbnails.php?album=727

Wishing everyone in Shiga a Happy New Year.

Praying for a safe, healthy, and prosperous 2012.

明けましておめでとうございます。

(Dragon photo was shot at Taga Taisha Shrine’s lantern festival in Aug.)

Taga Taisha on New Year's Day.

The Shiga Prefectural Police Department has estimated that 1.31 million people will pray at shrines and temples in Shiga during the first three days of 2012. This is more than New Year’s in 2011. Going to pray at a shrine or temple during New Year’s is called hatsumode (初詣).

Shiga’s most popular shrines during New Year’s and the estimated number of worshippers during the first three days of the 2012 have been announced as follows:

1. Taga Taisha Shrine (多賀大社) in Taga, next to Hikone, 470,000 worshippers
2. Nagahama Hachimangu Shrine (長浜八幡宮) in Nagahama, 150,000 worshippers
3. Omi Jingu Shrine (近江神宮) in Otsu, 140,000 worshippers
4. Tarobo Shrine (太郎坊宮) in Higashi-Omi, 120,000 worshippers
5. Hiyoshi Taisha Shrine (日吉大社) in western Otsu, 100,000 worshippers

As usual, Taga Taisha will see the lion’s share of worshippers. No doubt, the shrine’s auspicious name is a major draw. “Taga” means many felicitations. Perfect for new year’s prayers.

And on New Year’s Eve, Buddhist temples will be ringing in the new year at around midnight. At Hikone Castle, there is the Time-Keeping Bell or Jiho-sho (時報鐘) which the public can ring from 11:30 pm. The bell is on the way to the tenshu castle tower. The castle gate will be open from 11 pm.

Sanno Matsuri held by Hiyoshi Taisha in Otsu (Part 1 and 2):


Sanno Matsuri photos: Sanno-sai Festival 山王祭

Minakuchi Hikiyama Matsuri is a festival of floats paraded during April 19-20:

Minakuchi Hikiyama Matsuri photos here.

Kenketo Matsuri in Ryuo (Photos here):

Naginata Odori in Moriyama (Photos here):

Taga Matsuri (Photos here):

I have more spring festivals to show and a full update will be posted soon on my home page (shiga-ken.com).

See my video and photos: 

Photos: 
http://photoguide.jp/pix/thumbnails.php?album=727

I went to see two rice-planting festivals in Shiga, for the first time.

The first one was in Yasu on May 25, 2008. It’s held on the fourth Sunday in May in a sacred rice paddy near Mikami Shrine. Women and men in colorful costumes plant rice seedlings accompanied by singing, taiko drumming, and dancing. Started at 10 am with a Shinto ceremony, then the rice planting was held from 10:30 am to 11 am. The rice paddy is called Yuki Saiden (悠紀斎田記念田) which was the used to produce the rice used for the Showa Emperor Hirohito’s accession to the throne in 1928. It was a scenic area with Mt. Mikami in the background. Near Yamade-mae bus stop near the foot of Mt. Mikami. More photos here.

The second rice-planting festival was at Taga Taisha Shrine on June 1, 2008. It was more elaborate than at Yasu, with stage performances of taiko drumming and sacred dances. But they required a 500 yen donation to watch the rice-planting. It started at 1:15 pm and ended at 3 pm. The rice paddies were left unfinished though. More photos here .

Taga-cho has English pages, but unfortunately, they used automated (software) translation. The English is very bad, the worst in Shiga. 
http://www.tagatown.jp/frames/e-site.html 

However, the Board of Education has a separate page with the title: 
「多賀を世界に発信プロジェクト」 
http://www.tagatown.jp/educate/Introduce_taga/ 

It is a good idea for a project, and they have English descriptions of sightseeing spots in Taga-cho. The English is not bad. Probably one of their ALTs helped with the English. 

They need to make English links though, and coordinate or integrate with the bad-English page. 

Most towns are unable to create English pages. I think Shiga’s Biwako Visitors Bureau should help them with that.