This article needs to be updated. The reason given is: Talks about plans for 2022 in future tense in lede. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(June 2023)
Japanese festival
Onbashira Festival
Shikinen Zōei Mihashira Taisai (式年造営御柱大祭)
A raised onbashira in the Shimosha Harumiya, one of the four main shrines of the Suwa Grand Shrine complex
Frequency
Every 6 years
Location(s)
Lake Suwa area (Hara, Fujimi, Chino, Suwa, Shimosuwa, Okaya), Nagano Prefecture
The Mihashira or Onbashira (Japanese: 御柱, honorific prefix 御 on-/mi- + 柱 hashira 'pillar') are four wooden posts or pillars that stand on the four corners of local shrines in the Lake Suwa area of Nagano Prefecture (historical Shinano Province), Japan. The largest and most famous set of onbashira are those that stand on the four shrines that make up the Suwa Grand Shrine complex.
By custom, the onbashira are replaced every six (traditionally reckoned as seven) years, in the years of the Monkey and the Tiger in the Chinese zodiac. In Suwa Shrine, this occurs during the Onbashira Festival (御柱祭, Onbashira-sai), which also functions as a symbolic renewal of the shrine's buildings. During the festival, sixteen specially chosen fir trees are felled and then transported down a mountain, where they are then erected at the four corners of each shrine. Festival participants ride the onbashira as they are slid down the mountain, dragged to the shrine, and raised, and the festival has the reputation of being the most dangerous in Japan due to the number of people regularly injured or killed while riding the logs. This festival, which lasts several months, consists of two main segments, Yamadashi and Satobiki. Yamadashi traditionally takes place in April, and Satobiki takes place in May.[1] For 2022, the Yamadashi portion has been cancelled due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, but the Satobiki is still scheduled to begin on 3 May.[2][needs update]
^Cite error: The named reference Go Nagano was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^"Onbashira 2022 Latest News and Information". onbashirafestival.com. 8 January 2022. Retrieved 2022-03-31.
The Mihashira or Onbashira (Japanese: 御柱, honorific prefix 御 on-/mi- + 柱 hashira 'pillar') are four wooden posts or pillars that stand on the four corners...
shrines, the Tenaga Jinja and the Suwa Jinja. Major festivals include the Onbashira and Setsubun. Hokusai included Lake Suwa in his famous Thirty-six Views...
Houkisugi at Nakagawa Sugi no Osugi Jōmon Sugi List of superlative trees Onbashira Magewappa a traditional Japanese wood craft using Cryptomeria Thomas,...
Zenkō-ji temple in Nagano city Five Mountains of Northern Shinshu Zenkō-ji Onbashira, which festival held once in seven years Yashima Wetland in Kirigamine...
Suwa Shrine festival is not annual, but occasional. It resembles the Onbashira festival of the Suwa Taisha. Chichibu's annual night festival draws the...
symbol of Nagano. It was rung to confer blessing on the opening ceremony. Onbashira — or "sacred pillars" in the Japanese — are large wooden fir posts which...
Nagikama are also traditionally hammered onto the trees chosen to become the onbashira of the Suwa Kamisha and Shimosha some time before these are actually felled...
(in Japanese) Miyasaka, Mitsuaki (1992). 諏訪大社の御柱と年中行事 (Suwa taisha no onbashira to nenchu-gyōji). Kyōdo shuppansha. ISBN 978-4-87663-178-0. (in Japanese)...
Akimiya (秋宮) shrines are symbolically renewed every six years during the Onbashira festival. Huge trees are cut in a Shinto ceremony, then the logs are dragged...
(in Japanese): 122–123. 古代史ミステリー 「御柱」～最後の"縄文王国"の謎～ (Kodaishi Mystery. Onbashira: Saigo no Jōmon-ōkoku no nazo) (Documentary) (in Japanese). Japan: NHK...
Suwa Shrine's ceremonies and ritual items, such as the shimenawa and onbashira. She planned to move Moriya Shrine from the Outside World into Gensokyo...
Suwa-bukai). Miyasaka, Mitsuaki (1992). 諏訪大社の御柱と年中行事 (Suwa-taisha no Onbashira to nenchu-gyōji) (in Japanese). Kyōdo shuppansha. ISBN 978-4-87663-178-0...
(強大なる神の国―諏訪信仰の特質)." In Ueda; Gorai; Ōbayashi; Miyasaka, M.; Miyasaka, Y. 御柱祭と諏訪大社 (Onbashira-sai to Suwa-taisha) (in Japanese). Nagano: Chikuma Shobō. pp. 25–26. ISBN 978-4480841810...
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