Shiogama Shrine’s Moshio-Salt Making Ritual

Festival highlights

The highlight is the complete process of making salt using hondawara seaweed and seawater.

For Mogari, shrine priests travel by ritual boat to waters off Hanabuchi in Shichigahama. For Mizukae, they replace the water in the sacred cauldron with seawater collected at high tide from Kamagafuchi in Matsushima Bay.

For Moshio-yaki, seawater is poured over hondawara to make concentrated brine, which is simmered over sacred fire kindled with flint.

An ancient salt-making ritual shaped by seaweed, seawater, and sacred fire

What to expect

The event proceeds in this order: Mogari, harvesting hondawara; Mizukae, replacing the water in the sacred cauldron; and Moshio-yaki, simmering the salt.

For Moshio-yaki, an iron flat pan is placed over a hearth in the grounds of Okama Shrine, and hondawara is spread out on a bamboo rack above it.

The moshio salt is made by adding seawater to create concentrated brine and simmering it over sacred fire. It is offered at the Okama Shrine Reisai immediately afterward and at the Shiogama Shrine Reisai on July 10.

Location and access

Venue

Okama Shrine

Event venue 宮城県塩竈市 御釜神社

This map uses the venue name. Check the official guide for the event area and entrances.

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Dates and season

Season

For 3 days every July

Frequency

Every year

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Nearby attractions

Temples and shrinesShiogama City

鹽竈神社

宮城県塩竈市にある神社

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Attractions in the same municipality. Check each attraction’s official website for travel distances from the venue and current opening information.

Origins and History of Shiogama Shrine’s Moshio-Salt Making Ritual

This ritual preserves a salt-making tradition thought to date back to ancient times through the ceremonies of Mogari, Mizukae, and Moshio-yaki.

No records indicate when the ritual began, but the custom of divining from changes in the color of the water in the sacred cauldron is confirmed in the “Shiogama Machikata Tomegaki” as dating back to Kan’ei 13 (1636).

Okama Shrine stands at a place known since ancient times as “Hode no Hama,” where salt-making, said to have been taught by Shiotsuchi no Oji, was carried out.

Official information

The Miyagi Prefecture official website introduces the details and timing of Shiogama Shrine’s Moshio-Salt Making Ritual as a prefecture-designated intangible folk cultural property.

The official Shiogama Shrine website provides information about the stages of Mogari, Mizukae, and Moshio-yaki, as well as the Okama Shrine Reisai.

Shiogama Shrine’s Moshio-Salt Making Ritual at a Glance

Shiogama Shrine’s Moshio-Salt Making Ritual is a 3-day salt-making ceremony held every July at Okama Shrine.

The ritual involves harvesting hondawara seaweed, replacing the water in the sacred cauldron with seawater from Matsushima Bay, and simmering concentrated brine over sacred fire to make moshio salt.

The ritual is designated an intangible folk cultural property by the prefecture for preserving an ancient salt-making method, and records from the Edo period concerning the sacred cauldron also remain.