Yomemi Matsuri

Japan's Unique Bride-Seeing Festival | Akita

Yomemi Matsuri is a local festival of Akita which literally translates to Bride-seeing Festival. The festival takes place at Hie Shrine of Noshiro City in Akita usually in May. Yomemi Matsuri has gradually changed the way it is celebrated over time. In the beginning before the Showa Period, people gathered to Hie Shrine believing the shrine had powers of love and relationships. Many would travel to the shrine to pray to the kami in hopes of better romantic fortune.

In the early Showa days, new brides and young, unmarried woman would dress up and visit the shrine in hopes of good fortunes and blessings for their marriage or relationships. However, around the 1960's the shrine began restricting visitors to only brides who had just been married within the past year. The new brides would come to thank the Gods of the shrine for their new found love and prayed for continued happiness. However, it is becoming a practice for unmarried women to participate in Yomemi Matsuri once again.

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Akita Yomemi Matsuri | Related Travel