Encyclopedia of Shinto

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カテゴリー1： 5. Rites and Festivals
カテゴリー2： Individual Shrine Observances
Title
Tsutsukohiki matsuri
Text
"Tsutsuko tug of war festival." A festival that functions as a prayer for a bountiful harvest held on the 25th day of the first lulnar month at Itsukushima Shrine in Hobara Township, Date District, Fukushima Prefecture. Following a ceremony, all the men who are of an inauspicious age (yakudoshi) that year along with several dozen naked young men engage in a tug-of-war contest over a tsutsuko made from 500 sheaves of straw and weighing about 375 kilograms. The word tsutsuko itself refers to a straw sheaf. About 36 liters of steamed glutinous rice are put into the huge one made for this rite; the activity of the participants jostling with one another kneads the rice and turns it into the consistency of rice cakes (mochi). The mochi is later distributed among the parishioners (ujiko) and other worshippers who offer their wishes for health, longevity, and freedom from calamities. The festival originated with the bad harvest of 1728, in which many people starved to death and others even consumed the seeds set aside for planting. The feudal lord then gave seeds to the farmers and the following year's harvest was bountiful. The festival, which commemorates and give thanks for that gift, draws tens of thousands of spectators.
— Mogi Sakae

Pronunciation in Japanese/用語音声

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