🏮 Kurikoma Dashi Matsuri

くりこま山車まつり

Kurihara, Miyagi (栗駒岩ケ崎馬場通り他) · Every year on a Saturday and Sunday in late July

Summer festivalFloatsTraditional performing arts

The Kurikoma Dashi Matsuri is a summer festival held over two days, Yoimatsuri and Honmatsuri, on the Saturday and Sunday of late July each year in the Kurikoma Iwasaki district of Kurihara, Miyagi Prefecture. Organized by the Kurikoma Dashi Matsuri Executive Committee, it is about 20 minutes by car from the Wakayanagi Kanari IC on the Tohoku Expressway. The festival's origins date back to the feudal domain era of the Edo period, when it is said to have begun as the Nitta no Oosanaeburi, a prayer for a bountiful harvest, giving it a 300-year tradition. Initially it was a kazariyama (decorated float) displayed for the entertainment of the domain's residents in their farming work, but later it changed to a katsugiyama (shouldered float) carried on people's shoulders, and in recent years it has developed into a festival in which lavishly decorated dashi (festival floats) parade through the town. The highlight is the nine dashi floats that parade to distinctive hayashi (festival music). At the Yoimatsuri, in addition to the torimai (bird dance), teodori (hand dance), and the hayashi competition, there is a nighttime parade of the floats. At the Honmatsuri, after a simultaneous performance of the hayashi, the nine dashi floats parade through the town. As a related event, the Kurihara Yosakoi Matsuri is also held, and local performing arts can be enjoyed on both days.