Photos: Nekosuki · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Olivier Bruchez · CC BY-SA 2.0 (2, 3, 4, 5)
The festival of Kasuga Taisha's Wakamiya sub-shrine was begun in 1136 by the regent Fujiwara no Tadamichi. Over 15 to 18 December the deity is moved to a temporary shrine and entertained with dengaku, sarugaku, bugaku and kagura, and the Owatari-shiki procession on 17 December parades centuries of costume through the city.
Why it's unique
It has not missed a year since 1136: 2025 was the 890th. It is designated a National Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property (1979), and the continuity is the claim.
You are watching dengaku, sarugaku, bugaku and kagura performed for a deity, on a festival that has run without a gap for almost nine centuries.
Before you go
The midnight rites that move the deity are held in near darkness and are the solemn heart of it; the procession is the spectacle.
The Matsu-no-shita-shiki, where performers stop in front of the Yōgō pine (the model for the pine painted on every Noh stage), is the moment to be there for. The city tourism association sells reserved seats, bookable from October.
