Okusawajinja Shrine

The straw serpent coiled around the shrine's torii gate is a startling sight — this is the great snake that guards Okusawa. During the Edo period, when an epidemic swept through, the god Hachiman appeared in the village headman's dream and told him: make a great serpent of straw, carry it, and parade through the village, and the plague will stop. They did exactly that, and the epidemic subsided. Since then, parishioners have passed down the craft, weaving a new serpent from fresh straw after each autumn harvest. When the procession ends, the new serpent is offered at the shrine hall and the previous year's is mounted on the torii. Held at the annual festival on the second Saturday of September, this protective rite is a designated metropolitan intangible folk cultural property.