Momote-sai - Oomoto Jinja Shrine Annual Festival Hiroshima Itsukushima Miyajima Momote-sai

About southwest of Miyajima Pier is Omoto Shrine, a designated important cultural property that stands quietly amongst towering trees. In the past, the ritual involved shooting 200 arrows with 100 hands (one hand, two arrows), however today a single archer, one priest, shoots at a target that has the character 鬼 (‘oni’, demon), a combination of the three characters 甲・乙・ム (“Kou, Otsu, Nashi”). The shooting of arrows into the ‘demon’ is said to aid the flow of conflict into water and symbolises a deter