Akutai translates as “abusive language” in English and in step with lore, the festival in Kasama, Ibaraki Prefecture, began during the center of the Edo Period (1603-1868) as the simplest way to chase away evil and gain things off your chest.
The cursing kicks up at 1:30 p.m. when 13 priests from Atago Shrine clad in white (they’re pretending to be tengu, a goblin) begin trekking up the 306-meter-high Mount Atago. Participants who follow them absolve to hurl insults like “bakayaro,” a Japanese classic that translates harsher than “idiot.”
Just don’t direct your cursing at the tengu, who are considered being divine messengers. On their journey, the priests will drop by at 16 hokora (small shrines) to supply up a group of lucky charms for health and safety. However, the charms aren’t expected to remain on the altars for long, as participants will scramble to grab them. It’ll then be followed by a closing ceremony of shouting “bakayaro” 3 times.
Most of those factory workers were women who wanted a clear stage from the hellish task of constructing Kimonos by hand; hence, the cursing. Since they hold the festival at the highest of Mt. Atago, the celebration includes the thirteen long-nosed, red-faced goblins (tengu), said to own lived within the mountain thousands of years ago.
Many people take part in the festival where they walk behind thirteen tengus while hurling epithets at them as they create their way towards the Atago Shrine. The journey is pretty exhausting since you’ll travel on foot all the thanks to the shrine. If you’re going to take traversing to a full new level, you’ll be able to start all the way from Iwama Station, on foot.
