If you just arrived at the Kansai Airport, you should take the Kansai Airport Rapid Service, which is called JR Kanku Kaisoku, and get off the bus at Taisha Station. Then a three minutes’ walk from Sumiyoshi Taisha Station will lead your way to the site. Or you can choose the rail, which is also quite convenient. Take the JR Kanjosen Line, and get down at the Sumiyoshi Taisha Station. Then the same distance of walk will also take you there- the Sumiyoshi Taisha Shrine. And if you get there at the right time of the year, say June 14th, you cannot miss the great festival called Otaue Rice Planting Festival.

this event is an event of planting rice while dancing and singing songs. Rice takes a crucial rule in the culture of Japan. The planting of rice is deeply associated with the daily life of the Japanese people. Taue, which means the replacement of the rice seedlings, takes a great significance of the whole rice growing process. Suring the Taue all the rice seedlings will be removed from the nursery to the paddy fields. Before this movement, the paddy fields will be tilled by oxen. And I bet this scene cannot be found in a modernized city. Together with this, there are also performance of dance and sing. For the Japanese people, they believe that the powerful spirits resident in the rice seedlings. And if you sing the songs, they will add more energy to Mother Earth. And all the women in the dancing performance will wear kasa (braided hats) decorated with flowers.

The most attractive part of the festival is a performance called Sumiyoshi Odori. It is performed be one hundred and fifty young grils. All the people take part in this festival is on the purpose of praying for a good harvest. And after the harvest, they will make sacrifice to the Holy Spirit by offerings rice to the shrine deity in October.