onbashira

Yasaka Kanako's logs. The Onbashira are sacred logs that are used, after being cut using special ceremonial tools, in renewal of the Suwa Grand Shrine that occurs every six years, the ceremony which has gone uninterrupted for 1200 years. There are used in two festivals, Yamadashi and Satobiki. Yamadashi uses large trees that are covered in red and white regalia and covered in ropes. Part of this includes the ceremony on "Ki-Otoshi" which involves young men riding onbashira down steep slopes to prove their manhood.