Namahage Sedo Festival
This winter festival combines the Sedo-sai, a Shinto ritual, with the local folk custom of namahage, a type of ogre which frightens children on New Year's Eve. Roaring Namahage appear from the snowy mountains and dance boisterous dances under the light of a bonfire on the grounds of Shinzan-jinja Shrine. The festival is considered one of the five great winter festivals in Tohoku.