Saganakajinja Shrine

Saganaka Shrine appears in the Engishiki, compiled in the Heian period. Its main hall, built in the early Muromachi period, is an Important Cultural Property, distinguished by its joinery and carving. Around 15 January the shrine holds the Onda rite, in which farming is mimed with a comic touch to pray for a good harvest, and on 1 February the Mochibana rite, where rice cakes skewered on bamboo to look like blossom are offered up. Both preserve the character of medieval shrine-guild ritual, and together the cycle is designated an intangible folk cultural property of Kyoto Prefecture.