Yokote’s Winter Festival
Yokote’s Winter Festival is held each year on February 15, 16, and 17 as a celebration of the first lunar month. The first two days are centered on kamakura—large snow domes furnished with woven mats, a small brazier, and an altar for the water god. Kamakura that house small shrines are built in different parts of the city and along the Yokote River. On the last day, groups of representatives from each neighborhood carry bonden (decorated staves) through the city to Asahiokayama-jinja Shrine to pray for a safe and prosperous year.
In the early 1900s, kamakura existed mainly as small snow domes that were built for children by individual households. Today, the kamakura are built for the Winter Festival by professional craftsmen and are 3 meters in height. Roughly 80 kamakura are built and displayed during the festival, and thousands of miniature kamakura cover the riverbed below Janosaki Bridge.
The decorated staves called bonden make their appearance in the final two days of the festival. Bonden are physical objects that act as a temporary abode for kami, but they are also fancifully decorated representations of the neighborhoods that made them. Every year on February 17, each bonden is carried to Asahiokayama-jinja Shrine by a relay of participants who take turns bringing it up the steep mountain roads leading to the shrine. At the shrine entrance, the men carrying the bonden jostle against one another while trying to force their way through the crowded gates. Finally, the bonden are presented in the main hall on behalf of the community.