Aikawa Festival is the annual festival of Uto Shrine, the tutelary shrine of the Aikawa area. With over 400 years of tradition, it is one of the largest village festivals in Sado. After rituals at the shrine, a portable shrine is paraded through the town, while a taiko team, a Mamemaki dancer dancing to the beat and a lion go from house to house. The climax is in the cumulation of lights around 9 pm, when the portable shrine returns accompanied by lanterns hanging from long poles, to the main shrine, itself surrounded by strung up red and white paper lanterns. It is a scene that makes you feel the weight of history.
