Tengu Parade Revived in Shizuoka Town; Local Event Makes Impactful Comeback

The Yomiuri Shimbun

17:17 JST, March 5, 2025

FUJIEDA, Shizuoka — A famous tengu parade was staged for the first time in more than a decade in Fujieda, Shizuoka Prefecture.

About 30 people dressed as tengu paraded for the Tengu Matsuri festival, which was organized by a local group aiming to revitalize the local community, near the Shiroko Meitengai shopping street on Feb. 15.

The festival, which had been held for about 10 years beginning in 1951, was dedicated to the tengu — gods of preventing fires. Once boasting a huge procession of 150 participants, the festival was an opportunity to pray for postwar reconstruction and the safety of the community. It was revived in 1992 by the Meitengai shopping street and continued until around 2010, when it was again discontinued.

The parade was brought back this year by a group engaged in revitalizing the local community through such events as a theater festival. The group used tengu costumes and tools that had been kept in a local warehouse, and participants were invited from inside and outside the city.

Wearing red costumes and masks and holding sticks and feather fans, the participants walked about 2.5 kilometers, shouting: “Fire prevention! Fire prevention!”

“I’m glad we were able to revive this traditional event,” said Naoto Okamura, 39, a member of the group. “We’d like to continue it into the future.”