Make an Ise Festival Baton and Learn Its Work Songs in Kensington
Japan House London runs two £15 workshops on Sunday 8 November where you make a zai baton from wood and washi paper and learn the kiyari songs of Ise's Okihiki Festival.
Workshop Sun 8 Nov, book on Eventbrite
Every 20 years, Ise Jingū in Mie Prefecture has its buildings completely rebuilt. Japan House London calls it Japan's most important Shinto shrine, and says this renewal, Shikinen Sengū, has been going for more than 1,300 years, with over 1,500 sacred treasures and garments made again each time.
The timber for the new buildings arrives by festival. At the Okihiki Festival, thousands of local residents and supporters from across Japan haul the large hinoki cypress logs to the shrine together.
On Sunday 8 November, Japan House London brings a small part of that to Kensington High Street. Its hands-on workshop opens with an introduction to the festival's history. Then you make a zai, the signalling baton used to direct and coordinate Okihiki processions, from wooden sticks and washi paper. After that you learn kiyari uta, the powerful work songs chanted throughout the festival.
The workshop is led by Kawanishi Masahiko of Miyachu, an Ise maker of household shrines and Shinto ritual objects. He makes shime-nawa, the sacred straw ropes, trains younger artisans, and leads the kiyari singing in his own local Okihiki group.
There are two sessions, 12:30 to 14:10 and 15:30 to 17:10. Tickets are £15 on Eventbrite and can't be refunded.
The workshop closes a short Ise programme at Japan House London. Professor Emeritus Sakurai Haruo of Kogakkan University gives a talk on Shikinen Sengū and the Okihiki tradition on Friday 6 November, and Miyachu's president, Kawanishi Yōsuke, talks about Shinto craftsmanship on Saturday 7 November.
The logs, sensibly, stay in Ise.
