Performance conducted in the groundsof Suijingu Shrine and Yokosuka Castle(Saturday evening)
5 communities, which are located western part of
Yokosuka, haul their floats to the grounds of Suijingu
Shrine and Yokosuka Castel, which does not exist now
and is maintained as historical sites, and perform thefestival music. These communities showed theirperformance in the castle in the Edo period.

Drawing the lottery (Saturday 8.a.m.)

Putting up festival banners (Friday 8.a.m.)

13 festival floats parade in
Yokosuka in a line on Sunday.
Delegates of each community
gather at Mikumano Shrine anddraw the lottery to decide theorder of the parade. They want to avoid the numbers, 1, 6,
11 and 12. Please ask Yokosuka people why thosenumbers are unfavorable.

Hearing the sounds of gong as
the signal of the beginning of thefestival, community members
whose community is in front of
Mikumano Shrine, put up thefestival banners at the entrance of the shrine.

Festival is coming.
Building the ceremony stage
About two weeks before the festival,
wooden stage on which the festival
music is played is built in the groundsof Mikumano Shrine, creating theatmosphere of the festival.

Reharsal of the festival music

Eve of the festival (Friday 12.p.m.)“Soroi” means their first parade of
festival floats after they have finishedpreparing for the festival. They paradein their own community block and two
adjacent blocks.

Festival Map

In each community of Yokosuka,
children have practiced the festival
music with the instructions ofadults since the beginning ofMarch. On Thursday, the day
before the Eve of the festival, they rehearse theirperformance in the presence of community members.
Having attentions from the community members, children
seem to be nervous.

Cherry blossoms in the grounds of Mikumano Shrine(Friday, Saturday)

In March festival lovers arepleased when they found newsprouts and buds growing,
because full bloom of the cherrygoes well with the festival.

Night Festival (Saturday night)
After each community finishedperformance at 13 places in Yokosuka,
they parade on the main street. Festivalparticipants haul their float, which thedoll on the top section was removed andflowers were fixed, with theaccompaniment of the music. A distinctive tune, lightfrom many lanterns and excitement of festival participantsand spectators create comfortable atmosphere, which has
been same since the Edo period.

A distinctive tune breaking the silenceof early morning (Saturday, early morning)
At dawn of Saturday, sounds ofﬂutes and drums can be heard in
Yokosuka. Some festival lovers
enjoy in hauling their festival
floats with the accompanimentof rather slow tune in early morning, without anyspectators.

Performance conducted at 13 places in Yokosuka
13 communities offer places
where other community members
hauling the festival ﬂoat stop andperform the festival music,
Shoten, Kamakura andHitityoume. They show their gratitude that they canconduct the festival and take part in the parade ofMikoshi, portable shrine with your community this year.

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Performance of the festival music anddance on the stage (Saturday 10:30 a.m.)Showing respect to the 13thdescendant of the lord (Saturday 9.a.m.)

One community out of 13
communities is on duty
performing the festival music on
the stage, showing their gratitude
that they can conduct the festival
this year in the presence of the deity. A community whichdrew the ﬁrst number of the lottery used to be on duty. 13communities have took turns performing on the stage
since 1980.

The 13th descendant of the lord of
Yokosuka clan was invited to the festival.
When entering the grounds of the shrine,
each festival floats stop in front of hisseat and perform festival music to show
their respect towards him. It is thevestige of the Edo period when festival ﬂoats entered thegrounds of Yokosuka Castle and showed their performancein the presence of the lord at the time.

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