🏮 Kokura Gion Daiko

小倉祇園太鼓

Kitakyushu, Fukuoka (Yasaka Shrine) · Every year, 3 days including the 3rd Saturday of July

Summer festivalMikoshiTraditional performing artsFloats

306 days to go
Rooms around Kitakyushu, Fukuoka fill up while the festival is on.

Kokura Gion Daiko is held over three days including the third Saturday of July each year as the annual festival of Yasaka Shrine in Kokurakita Ward, Kitakyushu City, Fukuoka Prefecture. It is a Gion festival with about 400 years of history and has been designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property of Japan. It is a "taiko Gion" in which performance on drums and surigane (jangara cymbals) plays the leading role, and it is characterized by two-sided drumming while walking, which has no parallel elsewhere in the country. The festival is said to have originated in 1618, when the then domain lord Hosokawa Tadaoki, wishing for an end to disasters throughout the Buzen Province and for the health of the domain's people, began it in imitation of Kyoto's Gion Festival. At first it used noh-style performance with gongs, drums, and flutes, but in 1650 Seigoro took a hint from a festival in Edo and introduced the taiko, and the current style of placing drums on yamaboko (festival floats) was established at the end of the Meiji era. The main attractions are "mawari daiko," in which performers parade while striking drums mounted on floats, and "sue daiko," in which they perform with drums set on stands. The two-sided drummers are divided into "doro" and "kan," creating a distinctive rhythm in harmony with the jangara. During the three days of the main festival, float processions, children's competition performances, a grand drum review, and drum squares in various districts are held, with many groups taking part.