Myoken Festival is the grand autumn festival of Myoken Shrine (Yashiro Shrine) in Myoken Town, and is the largest festival event in the Yatsushiro region that has been going on since the Edo period.
The Shinko Procession, which takes place on November 23rd, features many traditional performances that have been passed down since the Edo period, and it fascinates viewers as a gorgeous period picture scroll.
Many temples were built around Myokengu Shrine, and merchants and merchants formed a temple town and castle town, and trade with foreign countries was carried out, and it is believed that the area prospered greatly.
In the mountainous area south of Myokengu Shrine, there is a mountain castle, Furudoku Castle (then Yatsushiro Castle), built by the Nawa clan since the 14th century.
This area was the political, economic, and cultural center of the Eight Generations.
Around the Genroku era (around the end of the 17th century), when the townspeople’s culture flourished, the town of Yatsushiro began to offer elaborate and extravagant performances such as kasaboko, lion dances, and turtle snakes, which gradually became more luxurious.
Shishi
It is said that the Shishi mai began during the Genroku period when Izakura ya Kanshichi, a wealthy merchant from Yatsushiro Castle town, introduced it to the Myoken Festival.
After the Meiji Restoration, some of them disappeared from the procession, but now the “Furusato Creation Project” has restored and restored the performances, and the gorgeous processions of the past have been recreated.
In recognition of the preservation and inheritance of valuable traditional culture over the years, the Yashiro Myoken Festival has been designated as a nationally important intangible folk cultural property as a festival event representing southern Kyushu.