Matsudaira-go Gongen Matsuri (Matsudaira Spring Festival)

The Gongen Matsuri at Matsudaira Toshogu Shrine commemorates Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of the shogunate that ruled Japan from 1603 to 1867, who descended from the Matsudaira family whose ancestral home once stood here. On the Saturday evening before April 17, priests draw sacred water from the Ubuyu Well, believed to have been used for generations of Matsudaira newborns' first baths. The night continues with drumming, dance, and tezutsu handheld fireworks, bamboo tubes that blast sparks up to 10 meters high. On Sunday, a mikoshi carrying Ieyasu's spirit is carried in a procession of period-costumed participants to the family burial temple.