Whose Shoulders Are Allowed to Carry It

A mikoshi is built by specialist shrine carpenters and metalworkers using the same skills that construct permanent shrine architecture, with lacquer and gilt finishing that requires trained urushi lacquer artisans, making a fine mikoshi a genuinely expensive object funded by the community rather than any single donor.

A shoulder-borne role, earned rather than assumed

During a festival, matsuri, the mikoshi is carried on the shoulders of a team of community volunteers, historically young men of the local neighborhood specifically, though many areas have opened the role more broadly in recent years, and taking a place among the bearers is generally treated as an earned or assigned position within that community rather than something any passing visitor may join uninvited.

Storage and long term upkeep

Between festivals a mikoshi is kept in a dedicated storage building at the shrine rather than left exposed, and its lacquer and gilding are maintained and periodically refreshed by specialists rather than the whole object being replaced, an investment that treats the mikoshi as a long lived piece of community property passed down across many festival cycles rather than a disposable prop rebuilt each year.