Yokai Night Parade 百鬼夜行

和霊神社 · Shrine or temple · Uwajima, Ehime

Warei Shrine

The shrine of a murdered retainer on the edge of Uwajima, where the ushi-oni of the summer festival come to pay their respects.

Quick Facts

Type
Shrine or temple
Prefecture
Ehime · Uwajima
Nearest station
Uwajima Station (JR Yosan Line)
From the station
About ten minutes on foot
English signage
some
Opening hours and admission
See the official site (external link) · information checked on 2026-11-03

Hours, admission and closing days change, and this site does not list them. The link goes to the place's own page, with the date we last checked it.

The great stone torii of Warei Shrine, Uwajima
Photo: Reggaeman, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (external link)

What is there

Warei Shrine stands at the northern edge of Uwajima, a ten-minute walk from the station, behind one of the largest stone torii in the country. It was founded in 1653 for Yamaie Kiyobei, a senior retainer of the domain murdered in 1620, whose angry spirit was blamed for the deaths that followed and was laid by enshrining him. The shrine’s great festival in late July is the heart of the city’s ushi-oni festival: on the final night the portable shrine is carried into the river below the shrine, and the ushi-oni come to the gate. An ushi-oni head is kept at the shrine between festivals.

Why here

The festival ushi-oni of southern Ehime was recorded in 1784, carried ahead of the portable shrine to clear the way, and that is what it still does: a body five or six metres long of cloth and palm fibre on a bamboo frame, a long neck, a horned head with a sword for a tail, borne by dozens of young men who swing it into doorways to drive out evil. The man-eating ushi-oni of the Iwami coast is the same name on another creature, and the article sets the two apart.

Yokai you will meet

  • Ushi-oni 牛鬼 — The shrine whose July festival sends the ushi-oni through the city; a head is kept here between festivals.

Getting there

Uwajima Station (JR Yosan Line). About ten minutes on foot.

Sources and further reading

  1. Reliable secondary Warei Shrine (external link) Warei Shrine (Uwajima) The shrine's own site: the founding in 1653 for Yamaie Kiyobei and the great festival in July.
  2. Reliable secondary Uwajima City Tourism and Products Association (external link) Uwajima City Tourism and Products Association Visitor information for the shrine and the festival.
  3. Database Warei Shrine (和霊神社) (external link) Wikipedia (Japanese) Yamaie Kiyobei's murder in 1620, the founding in 1653 and the Warei Taisai.

Other places with these yokai

Other places in Ehime

  • Uwajima Ushi-oni Festival うわじま牛鬼まつり Festival Uwajima, Ehime — Three days in July when twenty-odd ushi-oni from the districts of Uwajima parade through the streets and the portable shrine runs into the river.