The Bo-no-Te (literally Pole in Hand), once called Bojutsu (The Art of the Bar), is a famous form of acrobatics mixed with martial arts which is still performed during specific festivals in Aichi Prefecture. The Sanage Festival is probably the most famous and representative place due to the impressive skill of its practitioners. Appointed as an Intangible Cultural Folk Heritage of Aichi Prefecture, the technique uses batons, swords, spears and sickles, as it is believed that the first masters were simple farmers who used whatever tools they had available as weapons. Some say that this art started during the Muromachi Era (1336-1573). The festivals are ceremonies of prayer for abundant harvests.

In the heydays of this festival, it is said that practitioners from 186 villages of Mikawa, Owari and Mino regions (at that time called countries) would join in the celebrations and, at the grounds of the shrine, participants would often engage in heated arguments and disputes, which at some point earned the festival the handle of Brawling Festival (Kenka Matsuri).