Yumiiwai Demon-Slaying Ceremony

Every year in early January, residents of the Unogawa area gather for an ancient ritual. One by one, arrows fly from the grounds of Unsenji Temple to strike targets standing near Karasugawa Jinja Shrine, 40 meters away. Called the Yumiiwai Ceremony, this midwinter archery performance reenacts the events of a local legend and is said to protect the town from demonic forces. The success of the archers also acts as a prediction of the village’s fortune in the coming year.

Some 1,100 years ago, when Kawakami was a small village, a demonic spirit tormented the villagers with plagues and misfortunes. To fight it, a skilled archer named Higashi Yasō decided to ask the powerful deity of Mt. Hakusan for aid. He built a temple facing the sacred mountain and prayed fervently. Finally, on the ninth day of the new year, he saw the demon take physical shape. At that moment, snow blew fiercely around him, obscuring his vision. Undeterred, Higashi donned a straw hat to shield his face and loosed an arrow that flew through the snow and struck the demon, vanquishing it.

The villagers celebrated, but Yasō warned them that the demon was the god of their mountain, and his divine wrath might befall the village. He said that every year, they must shoot an arrow in each of the cardinal directions. This would subdue any demon that tried to enter.

Today, the ritual is observed by choosing three men to shoot arrows from a platform erected at Unsenji Temple. They aim at targets with “demon” written on the back, and they alternate shots in a prescribed order. In total, 53 arrows are fired, and it is said that the more arrows that hit their marks, the better the coming year will be. After the archery, a priest from Unsenji reads a sutra to pacify the wrathful spirit of the demon.