Day Trips

From Elsa to Cinderella to Snow White, princesses are held in extremely high regard in Japanese culture. But it isn’t just your common-or-garden Disney princess that enraptures the attention of the Japanese public; the adoration of Princess Aiko, and the furor surrounding the marriage to a commoner of Princess Mako, is evidence of this. However, this is not a new phenomenon. Though Japan, like many other nations, has been profoundly patriarchal since time immemorial, the position of a princess has long been held in high regard, both in a regal form and in religious spheres. It is the latter that the Saiō Festival in the town of Meiwa in Mie Prefecture – a short jaunt from Nagoya – is celebrated. Origins of the Saiō Matsuri A two-day festival held on the first weekend of June, the Saiō Festival celebrates Meiwa’s history as the former imperial residence of the Emperor’s representative for Ise Jingu. Its origin lies in the legend that Yamatohime-no-mikoto, the divine daughter of Emperor Suinin, left Mt Miwa in Nara Prefecture to find a location from which she could worship the creation goddess Amaterasu-omikami. Her 20-year pilgrimage brought her to what has now become the Ise Grand Shrine…