Hana Festival (Kami-Kurokawa, Toyone Village)

Be warned when you experience this festival! Once you get a taste of the trance the festival creates, its feeling maddeningly comes back to you at this time of the year.
The Hana Festival is a traditional form of folk entertainment in the Okumikawa area. This festival held in the 11th month of the lunar calendar, when the human body and soul are said to be at their weakest, sees villagers gather at a ceremonial site called the "Maido" where the deities are invited to come down, and through communion with these spirits the people are reborn afresh. All sorts of dances carry on through the night: Children dance the sweet Hana Dance, while men wearing giant ogre masks dance waving broadaxes over their heads in the "Yamami oni" and "Sakaki oni" dances. Singing, drinking, dancing—this exciting moment with gods will be engraved in your heart with wonderment.