左義長祭り
Himure Hachimangu Shrine, Shiga
• Mar 11 & 12

This is a centuries-old religious festival, which the powerful lord, Oda Nobunaga, greatly loved in the early 16th century. Admire the spectacular floats carried by men wearing make-up. Watch as participants dance excitedly amid showers of fiery sparks around a blazing sagicho, a float with a two-meter high pine torch woven from new straw, on top of which is propped a three-meter long bamboo pole decorated with thousands of strips of red paper. A figure of the animal of the year is mounted in the center of the float. On the 16th, these sagicho perform in a fighting ceremony. Ramming into each other, some of them break into pieces. See elaborately dressed young men dancing wildly around the flames as the floats are set ablaze at the ceremony’s end.

Time: 1pm Mar 11; 10:30am Mar 12
• Admission:　Free
• Access: JR Omihachiman Stn bus to Obatamachi
• omi8.com/maturi/sagicho.htm