🏮 Kanbutsue Hanamatsuri

潅仏会、釈尊降誕会、花まつり花まつり

Takasaki, Gunma (Takasaki Kannon) · Every year on 8 April

206 days to go
Rooms around Takasaki, Gunma fill up while the festival is on.

Hanamatsuri (also known as Kanbutsue, Busshoe, or Gōtan'e) is an event celebrating the birth of Shakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism. In Japan it is held on April 8 of the new calendar or May 8, and it is also held at Takasaki Kannon in Takasaki City, Gunma Prefecture. It originates from the tradition that Shakyamuni was born in Lumbini, India, on April 8 of the old calendar, and the name "Hanamatsuri" spread from the Meiji era onward. At the festival, a kanbutsu-oke (baptismal basin) is placed inside a flower-decorated hanamidō (flower hall), filled with ama-cha (sweet tea), and the statue of the newborn Buddha is enshrined there. Worshippers celebrate by pouring ama-cha over the statue. This is based on the legend that when Shakyamuni was born, nine dragons poured sweet rain. There are also chigo processions in which a white elephant carries the hanamidō; the white elephant is regarded as a sacred creature that appeared in a dream granted to Shakyamuni's mother, Queen Maya.