“Iyo” is the old name for the region that is currently Ehime Prefecture, and it is recorded in the eighth-century Kojiki, the oldest history of Japan. The origin of the name is unclear, and some scholars have linked it to an old Japanese word for “flourishing”, while others have linked it to words for “hot springs” or “healing”.
| Date | Time | Ceremony | Unique Ceremonies |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7th | Midnight | Opening the Gates | |
| 8th | 9 am | Spring Grand Matsuri | |
| 6 pm | Departure Ceremony | Stealthy Procession | |
| 6:30 pm | Leaving the Jinja | ||
| 8 pm | Destination Ceremony | Welcoming Fires | |
| 9 pm | Return to the Jinja | ||
| 9th | 9 pm | Return Ceremony | |
| Midnight | Closing the Gates |
In this ceremony, people borrow a small amount of money （¥20） from the jinja, and the following year return twice as much. The jinja does not ask for a name or address when someone borrows money, so anyone can borrow the money without any conditions. This ceremony is one of trust and faith between the kami and the people, and is a prayer that one’s life will go so well that one can repay much more （symbolically, twice as much） the following year. Traditionally, people borrow ¥20 every year, but double the repayment every year for ten years, repaying ¥10,240 in the tenth year, before resetting to repay ¥40 in the eleventh. This custom may have evolved from an older practice of throwing money into the crowd.
In the evening of the middle day of the Tsubaki Matsuri, when the largest number of people fill the precincts and crowd it with their energy, the enshrined kami are transferred to a mikoshi, a sacred palanquin, and taken in procession to Kotohira Jinja. However, between the sanctuaries and the tower gate, the people carrying the mikoshi do not call out, and do not shake it in any direction. Instead, they carry it in silence, calmly. Because it seems as though the kami are trying to sneak out of the jinja, this is called the “Stealthy Procession” （“O-Shinobi Togyo”, in Japanese）.
The gold-plated mikoshi glitters in the light of the lanterns carried by those accompanying it as it moves quietly forward, creating a solemn scene as if from another world, and the great crowds of people in the precincts naturally fall silent to watch the mikoshi leave. There are many theories and popular explanations for why the ceremony is performed this way, but no-one really knows.
These are called “Awasebi” in Japanese. The people living in houses along the route taken by the mikoshi take the straw decorations that they hung at their doors at new year, and burn them by their gates as fires to welcome the mikoshi as it passes.
