Gold Mine Festival called “Kozan Matsuri” is held at the end of July every year in Aikawa.
This is the festival to appreciate the workers at Gold Mine and pray for prosperity there.
It’s based on a festival of O-yamazumi Shrine which the first magistrate Mr.Okubo established.
It had been lost at the end of 17th century, but a chief of Gold Mine Mr.Oshima who was sent to SADO Island, restored the tradition in 1885.
You can watch “Yawaragi” performance there.
“Yawaragi” means making something softer or something gets softer in Japanese.
In the old days, people working at Gold Mine tried making the hard rocks softer so that they could break them easily and get more gold.
Also, you can enjoy “SADO Okesa*”, local people’s traditional dance, and fireworks, too.
*It’s said that SADO Okesa is based on Haiya Bushi in Kumamoto, Kyushu, and it’s brought by a Japanese freight vessel named ‘Kitamae-Bune’ in the 17th century.
