🏮 Funakko Nagashi

舟っこ流し

Morioka, Iwate (Kitakami River (Right Bank Upstream of Meiji Bridge)) · Every year on 16 August

Summer festival

336 days to go
Rooms around Morioka, Iwate fill up while the festival is on.

The Funa-kko Nagashi is held every year on August 16 around the Meiji Bridge on the Kitakami River in Morioka, Iwate Prefecture. It is a send-off bon event in which boats decorated with lanterns and bon offerings are set on fire and floated down the river to send off ancestral spirits and pray for good health, and it is designated an intangible folk cultural property of Morioka City. Its origins go back about 240 years, to when the daughter of the Nambu domain lord Yukinobu held a major memorial service with water lanterns. Later, it merged with the practice of floating a boat carrying a memorial tablet and offerings to console the spirit of a courtesan who had drowned in the Kitakami River, and it came to be widely practiced among the townspeople. On the day, boats are floated from around 16:00, and fireworks are launched from 19:00. The sight of the boats with flames moving along the Kitakami River and the fireworks coloring the summer night sky are highlights.

Getting there

About 15 minutes on foot from the nearest station. Alternatively, take a bus from Morioka Station and get off at Senboku 1-chome, then walk 5 minutes.