🏮 Koda no Himatsuri

向田の火祭り

Nanao, Ishikawa (崎山広場) · Every year on the last Saturday of July

Summer festivalMikoshiTraditional performing arts

320 days to go
Rooms around Nanao, Ishikawa fill up while the festival is on.

Mukaidanohimatsuri is the summer festival of Iyohime Shrine in Mukaidamachi, Notojima, Nanao City, Ishikawa Prefecture, held annually on the last Saturday of July. It is known as one of Japan's three great fire festivals and is designated an intangible folk cultural property of Ishikawa Prefecture. In ancient times it was a summer evening festival called the "Osumi Festival," and it is also positioned as one of Noto's kiriko festivals. The climax of the festival is a procession around a roughly 30-meter-tall pillar torch (hashira taimatsu) set up at Sakiyama Plaza. Around 8:00 p.m., a mikoshi (portable shrine) carrying a sacred lantern and seven large and small houtou (kiriko floats) depart from the shrine and parade seven times around the pillar torch. After that, fire is transferred to handheld torches held by local residents and visitors, and at the signal of a flute they are all thrown into the pillar torch at once. The giant pillar of flame collapses with a roar, and it is divined that if it falls toward the sea there will be a good catch, and if it falls toward the mountains there will be a good harvest. It became an intangible folk cultural property of Ishikawa Prefecture in 1987, and in 2015 it was recognized as a Japan Heritage site as part of "Light Dancing on the Peninsula: Noto's Passionate Kiriko Festivals." As one of the four great festivals of Nanao, it continues to be passed down today as a traditional fire festival of Noto.

Getting there

About 35 minutes from Nanao Jōyama I.C. on the Hokuriku Expressway, about 15 minutes from Wakura I.C. Parking for 100 cars (Mukaida Fishing Port, JA Noto Wakaba Notojima Branch). From Wakura Onsen Station on the JR Nanao Line, get off at Mukaida Miya-mae on a Notojima Kotsu bus.