Namahage Sedo Festival (Akita Prefecture) Tours & Travel 2024

Special feature on Japanese festivals and seasonal customs

Club Tourism introduces winter festival tours to be held from Dec. 2024 to Mar. 2025! These are recommended tours to winter-only events and festivals, such as light-ups of snowy landscapes. With a tour conductor, you'll be well supported! Searching and booking tours is easy.

Namahage Sedo Festival

Venue: Akita Oga City, Oga Pref.

The dynamic and powerful Namahage dance
Namahage Sedo Festival

The Namahage Sedo Festival is a representative winter festival in Oga. This festival combines the Shinto ritual "Sedo Festival" and the folk event "Namahage." It began in 1964 and is held every year on the second Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of Feb..
The festival begins with the "Yunomai" purification dance, a sacred dance unique to the Oga region, and the "Chinkamasai" traditional hot water ritual, held under the light of fire in the grounds of Mayama Shrine. A "Namahage Iori" ceremony is held, in which young men dressed as Namahage are given masks purified by the priests, transformed into Namahage, and return to the mountain.
At the Kagura Hall, you can see a reenactment of the traditional New Year's Eve event "Oga Namahage," as well as "Sato no Namahage," in which Namahage dressed in different costumes from all over the country burst into the fray, and heroic performances of "Namahage Taiko."
The Namahage Dance is held in front of the fire. The brave and powerful Namahage dance is very moving!