Toyama-go Shimotsuki Festival

Update:2019/09/29

• Festivals
• Temples and Shrines
• Historical Sites

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In the southern tip of Nagano, you will find Toyama-go. Or maybe you won’t, as it is one of Japan’s Top Three Hidden Valleys. For over a thousand years, every November, known as “Shimotsuki” in olden times, Shimotsuki Festival has been held to mark the start of the snowfall. It is considered the one time of the year the gods and humans come together and is celebrated by a traditional ceremony. There the people of the village are splashed with boiling water as a prayer for a good crop in the spring. A nationally designated Important Intangible Cultural Property.