🏮 Ashibetsu Kenka Yamakasa

芦別健夏山笠

Ashibetsu, Hokkaido (健夏まつりメイン会場) · Every year on the 3rd Saturday of July

Floats

306 days to go
Rooms around Ashibetsu, Hokkaido fill up while the festival is on.

Ashibetsu Kenka Yamakasa is a yamakasa (float-carrying festival) event held every July in Ashibetsu, Hokkaido. It was started by people inspired by Hakata Gion Yamakasa, and is run by four nagare (community groups) — Ichiryu, Eiryu, Kitadaikokuryu, and Midorikoryu — with the Ashibetsu Kenka Yamakasa Promotion Association overseeing them. The climax is the Oiyama on the evening of the third Saturday of July, a 1.4 km time race between three yamakasa. In the run-up to that day, preparatory events are held in sequence: the Wakamatsutori, a prayer for safety at Ashibetsu Shrine; the Shugiyama, in which all four nagare carry a single yamakasa; and the Oiyama Narashi, a 700 m run by Ichiryu and a combined group of three nagare. In recent years, due to a shortage of carriers accompanying population decline and to promote tourism, carriers are widely recruited not only from within Hokkaido but from all over Japan, and the circle of people supporting the festival is expanding.