Gohan matsuri

   'Forced rice festival'. A type of festival enjoyed throughout Japan at Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines in which a participant victim is ceremonially and often comically 'forced' to eat heaps of rice (gohan), large quantities of noodles (udon), potatoes etc. and drink sake from huge bowls. The festival seems to be a pantomime of the consequences of a good harvest. At the Kodomo gohan-shiki at Ubuoka jinja, Nikko, Tochigi on November 25th children dressed as yamabushi force adults to eat. The Hakkoji-no-goriki ('luminous path forcing') of the Myoken jinja, Awano-machi, Tochigi is held at New Year on January 3rd. Gohan is also read kowameshi and means rice cooked with red beans.