Suwa is a city located in Nagano Japan. Every six or seven years (in the years of the Tiger and Monkey), Suwa hosts a Shino festival called Onbashira (literally means the honored log). For over 1200 years, the Suwa Taisha shrine and people in this community have been celebrating the Onbashira festival. The purpose of the festival is to symbolically renew the Suwa Taisha or Suwa grand shrine.

Suwa Taisha shrine, located near Suwa Lake in the middle of the Japanese archipelago, is one of the oldest shrines in Japan with more than 10,000 branches. Suwa Taisha has four shrine buildings. The festival consists of two parts that takes place over a period of two months-Yamadashi and Satobiki. Yamadashi traditionally takes place in April and Satobiki in May.

Yamadashi literally means “coming out of the mountains”. Before this portion of festival, huge trees are cut down in a Shinto ceremony using axes and adzes specially manufactured for this single use. The logs are decorated in red and white regalia, the traditional colors of Shinto ceremonies, and ropes are attached. During Yamadashi , teams of men drag the log down the mountain towards the four shrines of Suwa Taisha. Young men prove their bravery by riding the logs down the hill in a ceremony known as Kiotoshi.

During Satobiki locals raise the brought logs and that way symbolically use them as foundations of shrine buildings. The logs are raised by hands, with a ceremonial group of log bearers who ride the log as it is being raised and sing Kiyariuta from the top of the log to announce the successful raising. The festival ends with a ritual known as “Building of Hoden”.

When Onbashira takes place all 200,000 souls in Suwa region participate as it is immensely revered festival here. It is also reveled by upward of 2-million visitors. This 1200 year old festival is celebrated as one of the major “masculine” festivals in Japan, and it is believed that the place gets spiritually renewed by the raising of these natural pillars, as divinities are supposed to dwell in the trees. The ceremony of raising logs was performed as part of the opening ceremonies of the Nagano Olympics in 1998. As 2010 is the year of the Tiger this Onbashira festival will takes place from April 1st through June 15.

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