Matsuri Mania
Your guide to summer festivals
Akita Kanto Festival
Participants display their spectacular skills at balancing kanto—bamboo frames carrying up to 46 lanterns and weighing as much as 50 kilograms—on foreheads, shoulders, hips, and hands. There’s an exciting daytime contest in which adepts showcase their talents, but the big thrill is the evening parade and the sight of all the kanto, with their candle-lit lanterns, rising in unison when the starting whistle blows. Onlookers’ enthusiastic chants of “Dokkoisho, dokkoisho” cheer the lantern-bearers on. At the parade’s conclusion, you’re welcome to get up close to the kanto and touch them or pose with them for a photo. You can also try your hand at balancing a miniature kanto during pauses in the skills competition.
August 3 to 6
Kanto Street, Akita (15-minute walk from the west exit of JR Akita Station toward Akita City Hall)
www.kantou.gr.jp
Hachinohe Sansha Taisai (UN)
Dating back 300 years, this festival offers the splendid sight of 27 gorgeous floats depicting folktales or kabuki plays. Some of the floats are 10 meters tall. On August 1 and 3 spectators can enjoy the procession of the floats as well as mikoshi portable shrines from Ogami, Chojasan Shinra, and Shinmeigu shrines. Starting at 6 PM on August 4, the final evening, you can also view the floats assembled in one spot to the lively sounds of festival music.
July 31 to August 4
Downtown Hachinohe, Aomori
hachinohe-kanko.com/english/10stories
Hirosaki Neputa Festival
A stirring parade of 80 neputa floats weaves its way through the castle town of Hirosaki. Other festivals in the Tohoku region also feature neputa, but Hirosaki’s are unique for their fan-shaped illustrations of heroic men and elegant women. Together with other floats shaped like human figures, the neputa are hauled by participants marching to the sound of flutes and drums from 7 PM on August 1 to 6.
August 1 to 7
Around JR Hirosaki Station and Dote-machi, Hirosaki, Aomori
www.hirosaki-kanko.or.jp/en/edit.html?id=edit11
Goshogawara Tachineputa
Three giant floats (tachineputa) a staggering 23 meters high parade through downtown Goshogawara, joined by about a dozen other neputa of varying sizes. The city is so dedicated to its festival that power lines on the parade route have been buried underground to allow these leviathans unimpeded passage. During the period leading up to the festival (late April to mid-June), visitors to the Tachineputa Museum get to paste the paper on the floats.
August 4 to 8
Downtown Goshogawara, Aomori
www.go-kankou.jp/matsuri_event/tachineputa.html
Aomori Nebuta Matsuri
©Aomori Tourism and Convention Association
This electrifying Aomori festival welcomes audience participation. Dancers known as haneto— literally, “jumping people”—leap around the huge, colorful nebuta floats, adding an extra frisson of excitement. Tourists are encouraged to buy or rent costumes and transform into haneto themselves. The night procession on August 6 is the largest, but the waterborne finale on the 7th is also not to be missed.
August 2 to 7
Around JR Aomori Station, Aomori
www.nebuta.or.jp
NOTE:
Dates listed are for 2017 only. Please also note that festival schedules may change due to weather conditions or unforeseen circumstances. Be sure to check relevant websites in advance.
(UN)= UNESCO World Heritage or Intangible Cultural Heritage
Source " KATEIGAHO INTERNATIONAL Japan EDITION Spring / Summer 2017 vol.39 "
Illustrations by Hiroshi Fukui
Text by Chikako Shimizu and Rieko Numachi
Special thanks to Tetsuya Yamamoto
Translated by Pamela Miki and Julie Kuma
Copy editing by Alan Gleason
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