The Sakoshi Boat Festival is the primary festival at Sakoshi’s Osake Shrine, and the honmiya (the main part of the festival) is currently held on the second Sunday in October. The festival involves a Shinko ceremony, during which a mikoshi is transported from the shrine in the foothills, to Ikishima Island in Sakoshi Bay, where it is temporarily placed before being returned to the shrine. When the togyogyoretsu (the procession whose main purpose is to transport the mikoshi) has arrived at the bay, its members divide up and board 11 wasen (traditional Japanese wooden boats) specially made for the festival, becoming a funatogyo (a group that transports a mikoshi by boat). In the past, the festival was supported financially by merchant ship traders who had been very successful shipping salt and other commodities. During the same period, sailors from the merchant ships worked in the festival as rowers of kaidenma (wooden rowboats) that pulled the wasen of the funatogyo to the island. As these examples show, the festival was passed down amidst the prosperity of the maritime shipping industry. In Heisei 24 (2012), the festival was nationally designated as an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property.