Yukake Matsuri(Last Sat of May)

The “Yukake Matsuri” is usually held on the fourth Saturday in May. The “Yukake Matsuri” is a festival in which portable shrines parade through the hot spring resort area while being bathed in hot spring water. Barrels filled with hot spring water are set up along the roadside, and spectators pour hot spring water over the portable shrines with great gusto. At the main venue, the plaza in front of the entrance terrace, and at the finale venue, Izumi Park, portable shrines parade through the streets to the accompaniment of a traditional Japanese folk song, and the “hot water” is poured over the shrines in an even grander and more powerful manner!

The origin of the Hot Spring Water Splashing Festival
This festival has its roots in a legend that, because of the powerful effects of Yugawara’s onsen water, it was packed in barrels and presented to feudal lords’ families and imperial villas during the Edo era.
In those days, before the departure of the mikoshi for presenting the onsen water to the aristocracy, there was a ritual in which it was purified by splashing hot spring water over it and praying for a safe journey. This ritual has been reproduced in the form of the Hot Spring Water Splashing Festival, with people along the route being asked to toss hot spring water, imbued with their feelings of gratitude, at the passing portable shrines.
At the same time as the Hot Spring Water Splashing Festival, the “Chopsticks Festival,” in which thousands of chopsticks are burned, is also held as an old Shinto ritual to pray for sound health and bountiful harvests.