Garden Stream and Poetry Festival, Motsuji Temple 毛越寺　遣水　曲水の宴

Official explanation

This stream, restored in 1986, serves as the canal used for carrying water to the temple pond (Oizumigaike), and is the only remaining twelfth-century garden stream in Japan that retains its original form. Its design replicates a natural stream running downhill from the mountains to the sea.

Each year on the fourth Sunday in May, Motsuji Temple hosts a traditional poetry festival called Gokusui no En (“Winding Stream Festival”) along the banks of the stream. Participants wear Heian period (794–1185) courtly dress: men wear traditional hunting attire and headdresses, and women wear layered kimono called junihitoe.

Read the full explanation

Participants compose traditional poems on a specific theme as a small wooden boat floats down the stream carrying a cup of sake, and attempt to complete their compositions before the sake cup arrives.

The festival pays homage to traditional poetry competitions held by Japanese nobles, and also commemorates Fujiwara no Hidehira (1122–1187), the third Fujiwara lord to rule Hiraizumi.

出典: 地域観光資源の多言語解説文データベース（観光庁） — www.mlit.go.jp/tagengo-db. この英語解説文は観光庁の地域観光資源の多言語解説整備支援事業で作成しました。
Source: Japan Tourism Agency, Multilingual Explanation Database. This English text was produced by the Japan Tourism Agency's multilingual explanation project and is shown unedited. Opening hours and services may have changed since it was written.