Kagoshima: Japan Festival Parades Giant Puppet Bearing Swords, Bushy Eyebrows

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The Yomiuri Shimbun

16:04 JST, November 22, 2025

SOO, Kagoshima — A giant puppet, rising to a height of nearly five meters, was paraded through the street for an autumn festival in Soo, Kagoshima Prefecture, in early November.

The Yagoro-don Festival is held by Iwagawa-Hachiman Shrine to pray for a bountiful harvest. The event dates back nearly 1,000 years and was designated a national important intangible folk culture asset in March.

The giant puppet, called “Yagoro-don,” wears robes that have been dyed with plums, and at its waist carries two swords, one large and one small. It has thick eyebrows and wide, staring eyes.

“Don” is a title used when addressing someone in Kagoshima dialect, and Yagoro-don means Yagoro-san. There are various theories about the festival’s origin. One is that he was the leader of the Hayato, a tribe in the Kyushu region that rebelled against the Nara-based government in the 8th century.

Having passed through the shrine’s torii gate, Yagoro-don was led by about 40 local elementary school boys chanting in unison. To fit it under an overpass, the puppet was bent backwards, in a move likened to the Ina Bauer skating technique, which drew applause from spectators lining the streets.