SHINOBU SANZAN AKATSUKI MAIRI

Every year on February 11th and 12th, Fukushima City comes to life with the Shinobu Sanzan Akatsuki Main Festival. Literally meaning "Dawn Pilgrimage to the Three Peaks of Shinobu Mountain," the event is centered around Shinobu Mountain, located in the middle of Fukushima City. Beginning on the morning of the 11th and continuing into the following day, the festival draws hundreds of people from all over the area.
Tracing its history back to the Edo period (1600-1867), Shinobu Sanzan Akatsuki Main has been a tradition in Fukushima City for over 300 years. The main attraction of the festival is a huge straw sandal, boasted as the largest in Japan, weighing close to two tons and being over twelve meters in length. It takes about 2,000 bundles of straw, ten rolls of bleached cotton, a few poles of green bamboo, and about seventy people working approximately ten days to complete the huge thong.

On the first day of the festival the sandal is paraded through the city by energetic youths dressed in traditional costume. The parade takes a winding course through the streets of Fukushima City, followed by a throng of people, to the sounds of beating drums and chanting voices. The sandal eventually makes its way to the Haguro Shrine located on Mt. Shinobu where it is offered to the local deity enshrined there.Haguro Shrine is one of the many shrines and temples located on Mt. Shinobu whose original purpose was to pay tribute to the sacred-ness of the mountain. It is located near Haguro Peak, the central peak on the mountain, and is the main shrine devoted to the belief of the sanctity of Mt. Shinobu.
The sandal was once offered in appreciation to the large Buddhist Deva king statues that were originally placed at the gate of the Haguro Shrine to serve as its guardians. During the Meiji period (1868-1912), however, the statues were removed from the shrine's precincts. This was part of a futile attempt, which was taking place throughout Japan at the time, to separate Buddhist elements from native Shinto beliefs. The tradition of offering the large straw sandal continued, however, and today is done in the hope of such various things as a bountiful harvest, good physical health, traffic safety, success on examinations, success in marriage, and safety for one's family.

The sandal is dedicated at Haguro Shrine in the afternoon of the 11th and the ceremony is attended by dozens of local residents. Most people, however, make their way to the shrine in the evening after returning home from work or school and the narrow road meandering up the mountain, lined with stalls selling toys, sweets, good luck charms, and various local special products, is packed with people who come to enjoy the festivities and witness the biggest straw sandal -Japan and perhaps the world-as ever produced.