For the annual cherry blossom festival, one community presents its float each year, but for the Great Festival at Kamine Shrine, the four communities compete to see whose puppeteers are the most skilled and which can provide the best hospitality to the local deity.

UNESCO: Intangible Cultural Heritage

The local young men's group, which plays a key role at festivals by carrying the mikoshi (portable Shinto deity's house), has all but disappeared.

CNN: ASIANOW - TIME Asia