Tokusa-yama 木賊山

This float derives its name from “Tokusa” (“Scouring Rush”), a Noh play written by the great Zeami in the 15th century. The figure on the float is an old man from the Noh play who had his son kidnapped years ago, and manages to survive by mowing Tokusa rush without any family to help him in the mountainous province of Shinano (present day Nagano prefecture).

In the Noh play, a traveling Buddhist priest accompanied by an apprentice speaks to the old man working in the field and is invited to his hut. While drinking sake together, the old man, recalling the son he lost, begins crying and dancing desperately. It turns out, however, that the monk’s apprentice is actually the son of the poor rush mower, and thus the story ends happily.

The holy doll wears a straw raincoat around his waist, with Tokusa rush in his left hand and a hatchet in his right. The head of the figure was made in 1692.