🏮 Kakunodate no Omatsuri

角館のお祭り

Senboku, Akita (角館) · Every year, 7–9 September

UNESCO Intangible Cultural HeritageImportant Intangible Folk Cultural PropertyFloatsTraditional performing arts

358 days to go
Rooms around Senboku, Akita fill up while the festival is on.

The Kakunodate Festival is held every year from September 7 to 9 in the Kakunodate area of Semboku, Akita Prefecture, and is a festival of Shinmei Shrine and Jojuin Yakushido. Designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property as the "Kakunodate Festival Yama Events," it is also known as Oyama Bayashi. The former Kakunodate town developed as a castle town of the Satake-Kita family, and the festival first appears in the Satake-Kita Family Diary in 1694 (Genroku 7) as the Kashima Festival; after the influence of the separation of Shinto and Buddhism and other changes, it now consists of the Shinmei Shrine eve festival on the 7th, the Shinmei Shrine main festival and Yakushido eve festival on the 8th, and the Yakushido main festival on the 9th. The center of the festival is the hikiyama (pulled floats) paraded by former neighborhood units. The floats, assembled from wood and weighing about 3 tons in total, are decorated with warrior dolls and humorous attendant dolls depicting kabuki scenes and historical figures, and hand dances are performed to the accompaniment of hayashi music. Each hikiyama has states called "noboriyama" (ascending float) and "kudariyama" (descending float), and when it encounters another hikiyama, negotiators hold "negotiations"; if they fail to reach an agreement, a collision called "hikiyama butsuke" occurs. On the 8th, a collision for tourists is also held, allowing visitors to see the distinct character of the festival.