Otaue Shinji
(Sumiyoshi Ward, Osaka, June 14)

This festival is believed to have started when the empress consort Jingū (believed to have ruled 201–269) gave instructions for a sacred field to be planted with grains for the gods. The rice-planting ceremonies held in the fields belonging to the Sumiyoshi Taisha are famous as the most ornate and most impressive of all the rice-planting ceremonies in Japan. As well as the actual rice-planting, the ceremony also involves ceremonial dances performed by shrine maidens in traditional red and white robes.