Kamitakane Keigo Festival
(Kamitakane Guard Festival)

1st Sunday of October (annual)

Sumiyoshi-sha (shrine), Shinmei-Hiroba (Shinmei Park), etc.

Designated Toyoake City's Intangible cultural Asset in 1972

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Kamitakane Keigo Festival is based on the Omanto festival and also featurs
bonote performance, matchlock shooting performance,
and procession of the performaers.

Omanto festival is a traditional festival which offer decorated horses to shrines
in order to thank gods for a rich harvest.

The bonote in Kamitakane Village was intoduced by Ito Hanemon and Asano Fusazaemon
in the Kanbun era (1661-1672) in the Edo period.(1603-1868).
Though they introduced Yuwa school bonote, Ito Hanemon added many technics
and established Muso school.
It has been kept local people as a unique bonote style in Kamitakane area.
The Muso school is characterized by its actual fighting style. Most of the bonote schools emphasize their form.

Before the World War II, any year when they could get a rich harvest,
people had held the festival.
But during the war, they had had to pay matchlocks to the government
to get metals from them and they had to stop the festival.
After the war, it once revived, but it was hard to keep the festival because of luck of matchlocks.

Lucky enough, they got the city government bugget for the festival in 1990 as
a big project of "Creating Hometown".
Then they scraped up 40 matchlocks from all over Japan
and could hold the festival again.

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The original bonote started as a self-defence martial arts by farmers who couldn't have swords.
They used farming implements like sticks or scythes and devised techniques of self-defendings.
After the warlike period, the bonote became a offering performance for the festivals of shrines
and has been kept like now they are.

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access
Get off at Zengo Sta. on the Meitetsu line.
Take bus bound for Akaike and get off at Kamitakane (15min.).
10 min. walk


inquiries
0562-92-8317