Yamamiya Shrine Spring Festival (Anraku, Shibushi) （志布志町安楽　山宮神社の春祭り）

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On the Osumi Peninsula, there are three Yamamiya Shrines (in Tanoura, Shibushi; Anraku, Shibushi; and Kushira, Kanoya), each of which holds a spring festival to pray for a bountiful harvest. These festivals are a staple of springtime. The Yamamiya Shrine Spring Festival involves a “rice planting” event in which bamboo skewers made to resemble rice seedlings are planted on the grounds of the shrine, as well as a hamakudari (procession to the sea). The festival at Yakura Shrine features Tauchi (paddy tilling), in which the shrine grounds stand in for a rice paddy and are tilled with a hoe; Ushizukai (cow taming), in which people wear cow masks and pull plows; and Tanemaki (seed planting), in which seed rice is planted. In the shrine’s hall of worship, a priest holding a moromugi (a type of Japanese fern) branch dances the Taue-mai (rice planting dance). On the shrine grounds, young adults engage in Kagihiki, a tug of war with hooked poles used to till rice paddies.
All of these festivals involve a Shogatsu-odori (New Year’s Dance) performed by dancers masked in black hoods and wearing crest-bearing haori (kimono jackets) and momohiki (leggings).