Sugo Isobe Shrine’s Bamboo Splitting Festival is a Shinto ritual dating back to 677ad warding off bad luck and ensuring a good harvest. Young men wearing white robes and woven shoes walk around a fire pit and smash hundreds of bamboo poles on the stone steps. How the bamboo breaks gives the farmers guidance for the upcoming season. A rope ‘serpent’ is dragged out of the shrine and thrown in the river from the bridge. 50minute drive from Kanazawa Station.

https://en.japantravel.com/ishikawa/sugo-isobe-shrine-bamboo-splitting-festival/72240