This takes place at Shirahigetawara Shrine in Ota, Kitsuki. Doburoku is an unfiltered sake. This cloudy white liquor does not filter out the fermenting mash, and is the first form of Japanese sake. In the olden days, humans and gods imbibed sake together. In that respect, the Doburoku Festival could be the original sake festival where gods and humans ate together.
　The festival is held each year on October 17 and 18. Sake is made to express gratitude toward the bountiful autumn harvest. Sake is made with the extract of Japanese rice. It is offered to the gods and drunk together as an act of worship. The shrine precincts on the day is truly an area where doburoku sake is released.
　Because it is released in this area, it is also called tenka-gomen (legitimate). However, liquor tax laws in modern Japan do not permit just anyone to make sake anymore. For this reason, shrines in the area have created the alcohol-free amazake, created with the same spirit of gratitude for the harvest. But at Shirahigetawara Shrine, this is a traditional ceremony. This is why the Doburoku Festival has received special permission. The festival starts with the commencement of brewing. This is solemnly brewed according to tradition by purified shrine parishioners.
　As an old song says, “The innocent woman bites the rice to make sake,” sake brewing started with a holy woman chewing the rice. The brewing method has changed, but the fact that brewing is a sacred event has not.
　Now, on the day of the festival, visiting worshippers are treated to doburoku indiscriminately. However, the flavor of the sake changes slightly each year. How will it taste this year?
　We’ve focused only on the free-flowing sake, but, as part of the Kunisaki Touya Ceremonies, the practice of people called Touya doing everything from brewing the sake to hosting the festival is a Nationally Designated Intangible Folk Cultural Property.
　While you are allowed to drink in this area, drinking and driving is strictly taboo. Once, taking sake outside the shrine precincts was prohibited, but it is now permitted due to the drunk driving ban. What’s more, in recent years, there is even the Beard Contest, taken from the name of the shrine (Shirahige means “White Beard.”)