🏮 Mikuni Matsuri

三国祭

Sakai, Fukui (三国コミュニティセンター) · Every year, 19–21 May

FloatsMikoshi

247 days to go
Rooms around Sakai, Fukui fill up while the festival is on.

The Mikuni Festival is the spring festival of Mikuni Shrine, held every year from May 19 to 21 in Mikuni Town, Sakai City, Fukui Prefecture. It is one of the three great festivals of the Hokuriku region, alongside the Okurimatsu Festival in Takaoka City, Toyama Prefecture, and the Seihakusai in Nanao City, Ishikawa Prefecture. Centered on the Mikuni Festival Preservation and Promotion Association, about 30 districts serve as dashi-ban (float groups). The festival's origins are old: a record from 1717 mentions kasaboko (umbrella halberds), and dashi (festival floats) appeared from around the mid-18th century. Raised in the townscape of Mikuni Minato, which prospered through Kitamaebune trade, the festival once featured competing floats carrying warrior dolls over 10 meters tall, but with the installation of power lines in the Meiji period, they are now limited to 4 to 5 meters. In 2005 it was designated an intangible folk cultural property of Sakai City (then Mikuni Town), and in 2006 an intangible folk cultural property of Fukui Prefecture. The highlight is the float procession, in which 6 or 7 of the 18 floats, those on the yamaban rotation, parade through the streets. It is now introduced on the official website as the "Yoimatsuri Float Procession," and events such as a station-front surprise and the Hirokoji Nigiwai Plaza and Kitchen Car Gourmet Street offer stalls and food.

Getting there

To reach the Mikuni Festival venue, take a bus from JR Awaraonsen Station, or walk from Echizen Railway Mikuni Station. On the day, temporary shuttle buses are in operation.