🏮 Sagicho Sai

左義長祭

Katsuyama, Fukui (Benten Gahara) · Every year on 25 February

Bon odoriTraditional performing arts

164 days to go
Rooms around Katsuyama, Fukui fill up while the festival is on.

Katsuyama Sagicho, held in Katsuyama City, Fukui Prefecture, on the last Saturday and Sunday of February each year, is a New Year fire festival that has continued for over 300 years since the entry of Lord Ogasawara into the domain. It was once held on the 14th day of the first lunar month, but the schedule was moved to the current dates for the convenience of visitors and participants. The festival's main feature is the sight of adults in red long underkimono, joined by children, dancing with distinctive comic gestures atop 12 towers built in each neighborhood of the city center, accompanied by lively hayashi music of shamisen, flute, and gongs. This spectacle is said to exist nowhere else in the country but at Katsuyama Sagicho, and people call it a strange festival. On Sunday evening, the go-shintai (sacred objects) from each neighborhood are carried to Benten-gawara, known for its Benten cherry trees, and preparations for the dondoyaki (bonfire) proceed. The sacred fire kindled at Shinmei Shrine is carried by torches from each neighborhood, and at the signal of a smoke flare at 8 o'clock, they are lit all at once, creating a competition of flames against the winter night sky and snow. This festival, in which deities are sent off with prayers for a bountiful harvest and fire prevention, is cherished as an event that heralds spring in the Okuetsu region.

Getting there

To Katsuyama city center, get off at Katsuyama Station on the Echizen Railway Katsuyama Eiheiji Line, then walk about 15 minutes. By car, about 5 minutes from Katsuyama IC on the Chubu Jukan Expressway.