🏮 Kurosaki Gion Yamagasa

黒崎祇園山笠

Kitakyushu, Fukuoka (Around JR Kurosaki Station on the Kagoshima Main Line) · Every year on 20 July

FloatsTraditional performing arts

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

Kurosaki Gion Yamakasa is a Gion festival held every July around JR Kurosaki Station in Yahatanishi Ward, Kitakyushu City, Fukuoka Prefecture, and is dedicated to Okada Shrine, Kasuga Shrine, and Ichinomiya Shrine. It has a history of over 400 years, and because of its violent movements it is also known as "Kenka Yamakasa" (Fighting Yamakasa). In 2025 it was designated as a nationally recorded intangible folk cultural property. The festival's origin dates back to 1205 in the Kamakura period, when the Aso clan, who ruled Onga District, began a "Gion-e" to pray for the eradication of epidemics and a good harvest in their territory. The current yamakasa began in 1600 when Kuroda Nagamasa dedicated Suga Shrine to Okada Shrine and Kasuga Shrine and had it made as a festival ritual. From the Meiji period onward, it changed from sasa yamakasa (bamboo-grass floats) to the Nogata-style decorated yamakasa. The main festival is held over four days from the third Friday to Monday of July, and eight hikiyama (pulled floats) belonging to the Kurosaki Gion Yamakasa Preservation Society parade through the town. During Oshioi-tori they take the form of sasa yamakasa, during the main festival they become ningyo yamakasa (doll floats), and at night the floats are run with electric decorations. The hayashi music consists of Japanese drums, gongs, and conch shells, and is said to incorporate the rhythm of the battle drums used by the Kuroda domain at the Battle of Sekigahara, supporting the yamakasa's valor.