Villagers walked home with white “makeup”. (in Asakura city, Fukuoka Prefecture)
Some villagers’ faces were entirely covered.
Every year on December 2, a festival called “Oshiroi Matsuri” is held in Asakura city, Fukuoka Prefecture, as a prayer for good harvests in the coming year. It takes place at Oyamazumi Shrine. Villagers paint their faces with “oshiroi,” which is a white paste made from rice flour and water, to express appreciation for current year’s harvest and wish for next year’s good harvests.
The while ceremony starts with a ritual. Shrine’s top priest performs a ritual and gives prayers in front of approximately 50 worshippers in the hall. Then the people enjoy a social gathering that serves pressed sushi, simmered vegetables and all other colorful dishes.
People enjoyed a banquet before the highlight of the day.
The highlight of the day comes when people are lightly drunk after the banquet of approximately 1.5 hours. A group of the villagers with bowls of white “oshiroi” mixture suddenly appear and start smearing the mixture on people’s faces, literally all over them. It is said the more the “oshiroi” paste clings on to their faces, the greater the harvest of the next year will be.
Villagers in charge paint other villagers’ faces.
The festival began more than 300 years ago in order to thank the female local deity of the mountains by wearing white “makeup” made from newly-harvested rice.