Hie Sannou matsuri　日吉山王祭

KEY WORD :　art history / paintings

Also known as Hie 日吉 (can be read Hiyoshi) matsuri 祭 or Sannou matsuri 山王祭. A pictorial subject depicting the festival of Hie Taisha 日吉大社 (known as Sannou Gongen 山王権現 tutelary god of Enryakuji 延暦寺 in Shiga prefecture), at the foot of Mt. Hiei 比叡. The festival is held annually at the shrine after the Day of the Monkey saru 申 in the Fourth month. As popular as the *Gionmatsuri 祇園祭, the Hie Sannou matsuri started in 1072, and was attended by worshippers ranging from courtiers to poor commoners. The festival was cancelled after Oda Nobunaga's 織田信長 (1534-82) attack and torching of Mt. Hiei in 1571, but was revived in 1591. Various scenes of the festival are typically depicted on screens, which were probably used as souvenirs or as records for those who could not attend. The oldest extant example is a pair of four-panel screens *fusuma 襖 at Dannouhourinji 檀王法林寺 in Kyoto, executed by a Kanou school *Kanouha 狩野派 artist around 1600. The right screen (from the viewer's vantage point) shows the inner precincts of Hie Taisha, with a ritual procession bearing a sakaki 榊 tree. The left screen shows the climax of the festival, a race where the bearers of the portable shrines *mikoshi 御輿 of the seven upper shrines fight to load their shrine first aboard boats to cross Lake Biwa 琵琶 to Karasaki 唐崎. A slightly later pair of screens at Konchi-in 金地院 in Kyoto, focuses entirely on the water-borne aspect of the festival. Screens in the Suntory Museum of Art and Nishimura Collection, pair the Hie Sannou matsuri with Gionmatsuri and Kamigamo 上賀茂 horse race *Kamo no keiba 賀茂競馬, respectively.

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