Inking Festival

An Ink-redible Mess
You probably shouldn’t wear your favorite shirt to this festival.
Why do these people have ink on their faces? Come find out, and while you’re at it protect yourself from disaster at sea, meager catches and the common cold in the coming year. Sound good? We thought so too.

For 250 years, the Mihonoseki district of Matsue city has hosted what must be one of the oddest festivals in western Japan. On the morning of January 7th, shouts pour forth from an old shrine, and moments later a group of men appear, wearing short blue jackets and shouldering a portable shrine, or mikoshi, which they carry through the streets. On doorsteps and street corners throughout the neighborhood, people gather in anticipation of the shrine’s passing.

So far, things appear to be going more or less as in any other neighborhood festival in Japan. But wait! The shrine-bearers faces are blackened with soot. Sake, consecrated to the god of the shrine, is mixed with charcoal from fires and the resulting paste is put in bags and distributed to festival participants. As they parade through the streets, the rough ink is scooped out and smeared on the faces of spectators. By the festival’s end, hundreds of people will wear the ink, smiles showing brightly on their blackened faces. Old women, children; no one escapes, and no one wants to. No one is certain of the custom’s origin, but receiving the ink is said to bring both good fortune in the coming year and resistance to illness. And the more the ink, the better!

The Mihonoseki neighborhood where the Ink-Marking (sumitsuke) festival takes place is an old fishing village called Katae. The black-faced residents of Katae accompany the mikoshi to the sea, where it is carried into the chilly water. The festival’s main purpose is to insure both safety at sea and a large catch for the town’s fishermen. Additionally, people who have married or built homes in the past year are thrown into the frigid waves by their neighbors to bring them luck. Fortunately, the ink on their faces will protect them from catching cold!

Matt Mangham

Airplane
Yonago Airport====(by taxi, 20min.)====Katae in Mihonoseki

Bus
JR Matsue Station====(by Ichibata bus, 40min..)====Mihonoseki Terminal=====(by Mihonoseki Chomin bus, 20min.)====Katae
Car
Matsue ====(Route 431→435, 20min)====Katae in Mihonoseki

Yonago ====(Route 431→435, 20min)====Katae in Mihonoseki

Sightseeing in Shimane: http://www.kankou.pref.shimane.jp/e/index.html