Otsu Matsuri (2025, ©John Carroll)
As sleepy as it may be most of the time, downtown Otsu comes alive with a vengeance each mid-October. It hosts the two-day Otsu Festival on the weekend preceding Sports Day. In its present form, this matsuri dates back to 1638, although an even older festival preceded it.
Today, the city is the capital of Shiga Prefecture with a population of nearly 350,000. Some consider it a "bedroom town" for Kyoto, which lies just over a range of low mountains. However, boasts the third-highest number of nationally designated cultural properties of any city in Japan, after only Kyoto and Nara. And it is home to Enryakuji temple on Mount Hiei, among other important shrines and temples.
A Colorful Spectacle
The Otsu Festival features 13 gorgeous hikiyama floats. These are displayed during the Yomiya on the eve of the main festival. When evening comes, you can hear the ohayashi traditional festival music performed on the floats with flutes, taiko drums, and gongs. Lit by paper lanterns, mechanical dolls, tapestries, metal ornaments, and other festival items are also on display. Then, during the hon matsuri on Sunday, the floats are pulled through the business district by residents of the various neighborhoods, while musicians keep up a constant stream of music.
In the Edo period, Otsu flourished as a transportation and logistics hub directly under the administration of the Tokugawa Shogunate. Its strategic location at the southwest corner of Lake Biwa, Japan's largest freshwater lake, made it a key port for cargo transported by water. In fact, it had played that role for many centuries.
It was the 53rd post station on the fabled Tokaido highway linking Edo with Kyoto. For the brief years from 667 to 672, it also served as the imperial capital under Emperor Tenchi.
Otsu supplied many of Kyoto's needs, and its local merchants grew wealthy from the trade. It is hardly surprising that they decided to emulate their Kyoto counterparts with visual evidence of their commercial success. Thus, during the 17th century, various neighborhoods started fielding their own hikiyama (floats) during the Tenson Shrine autumn harvest festival.
'Moving National Treasures'
There are 13 floats today, although at one point there appeared to have been 14. These hikiyama are nothing less than moving cultural treasures. Like the yama and hoko in the Gion Matsuri, they are assembled every year without the use of nails — only straw ropes and wooden joint plugs — and then disassembled after the festival concludes.
In the Edo period, neighborhoods competed to acquire the most exquisite materials for their floats. They are decorated with ceiling paintings, ornate fixtures, and gorgeous cloth hangings from Ming and Qing China. Two woolen curtains woven in Brussels, Belgium, are designated as Important Cultural Properties.
Tenson Shrine
Thought to have been established in 782, the origins of Tenson Jinja are unclear. Its name suggests it is dedicated to Ninigi-no-mikoto, who in Japanese mythology was the divine grandson of the Sun Goddess Amaterasu Omikami and great-grandfather of the first Japanese emperor.
The order of the floats in the processions is determined by lot in a ceremony held at Tenson Shrine every September 16. Musicians also begin practicing the festival music (ohayashi) on this day.
The one exception is the Saigyo-Sakura-Tanuki float, commonly referred to as the "Tanuki Yama." It always leads the parade since it was the original hikiyama. This float, from the neighborhood closest to Tenson Shrine, sports the distinctive image of a tanuki (raccoon dog) at its very top, which serves as the symbol of the festival. Originally, the float was connected to the story of the salt seller Jihei and his tanuki mask.
According to local records, the hikiyama tradition originated in the early Edo period when a Jihei from Kajiya-cho danced in the streets wearing a raccoon dog mask. He attracted such a large crowd that at later festivals he was transported around on a bamboo float covered with cotton.
This continued for roughly 10 years, until Jihei became too old to continue prancing around. So a mechanical doll depicting a raccoon dog drumming its stomach was fashioned to take his place, which townsmen transported around the town.
The Festival Through the Centuries
In 1656, the float changed to depict the Noh play Saigyozakura. However, a tanuki image was placed on the rooftop. This totem has since been viewed as both leader and guardian of the festival, ensuring pleasant weather will prevail during the event.
Other floats were added over the next century and a half, with brawny steersmen from Lake Biwa ships and lumber workers hired to pull them through the streets.
Karakuri mechanical dolls are a distinctive feature of the festival. While ongoing, the dolls engage in performances called shomon based on scenes from Noh plays and Chinese and Japanese legends. These take place at more than 20 designated locations around Otsu, including Tenson Shrine.
Among the personages portrayed are Lady Murasaki, authoress of The Tale of Genji, Empress Jingu, the renowned Chinese military strategist Zhuge Liang (Kongming), Ebisu, a god who bestows wealth, and the Chinese goddess Xiwangmu (Queen Mother of the West), consort of the Jade Emperor who cultivates the "Peaches of Immortality."
The mechanical contrivance on the Xiwangmu (Seiobo) float features a magical peach, which splits open. A tiny boy doll then emerges. I suspect it is also a sly reference to the Japanese folktale of Momotaro, the Peach Boy.
Incidentally, there is a replica of the Xiwangmu float on display at the Otsu Matsuri Exhibition Pavilion. This mini-museum is open year-round and contains numerous exhibits and videos on various aspects of the festival.
Mechanical Dolls and Protective Charms
All the karakuri reflect the theme of the yama that carry them. Manipulated with unseen strings, their clever and imaginative movements are a delight to watch.
It is unclear when karakuri were introduced into the Otsu Festival. However, a refined karakuri doll culture had existed in nearby Kyoto since the Muromachi period. In any event, the continued existence of these traditional mechanical dolls is a veritable treasure for historians of Japan's performing arts.
Another compelling aspect of the Otsu Festival is the tossing of yakuyoke chimaki straw protective charms from the floats into the crowds of spectators. Residents of each neighborhood fashion their own chimaki, which are blessed by the chief priest of Tenson Shrine. People lucky enough to catch them are said to receive divine protection from evil spirits for the coming year if they display them at the entrances to their homes.
The term chimaki usually refers to steamed rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves. But for the Gion and Otsu festivals, chimaki are these inedible good luck charms. (The Gion Festival's tradition of chimaki tossing was discontinued several years ago.)
I must have got the practice mixed up because when I was watching this year's parade, I got smacked hard in the mouth by a chimaki thrown from the Jingu Kogo hikiyama. Luckily, I was wearing a surgical mask. Even luckier, the chimaki bounced into my hands and I took it home.
Carrying On the Parades
In Otsu, one parade takes place in the morning. Then another makes its way through neighborhoods in the afternoon along a different route.
A highlight of the day is the lunch break, during which the bands arrive one after another at a rest area set aside in the middle of Chuo Street.
They create a cavalcade of color. Not only are the floats different, but so are the costumes of the groups pulling them. And the musicians seem to speed up each of their ohayashi as they sight their rivals. This "battle of the bands" creates an exciting wall of sound and lets spectators know in no uncertain terms that they are at an honest-to-goodness matsuri.
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Author: John Carroll
