🏮 Wajima Hikiyama Matsuri

輪島曳山祭

Wajima, Ishikawa (Sumiyoshi Shrine) · Every year on 4 April

Floats

202 days to go
Rooms around Wajima, Ishikawa fill up while the festival is on.

The Wajima Hikiyama Festival is held every year from April 4 to 6 at Sumiyoshi Shrine and Juzo Shrine in Wajima City, Ishikawa Prefecture, and is a spring tradition in Wajima. In Fuse-machi, the eve festival and main festival are held at Sumiyoshi Shrine, while in Kawai-machi they are held at Juzo Shrine, with the two districts each running their own celebration. The highlight of the festival is the procession of 5-meter-tall yamaboko (festival floats) made entirely of Wajima lacquer, which parade through the streets of Wajima. Men in their unlucky year (age 42 by traditional counting) from Fuse-machi and Kawai-machi ride on the floats along with elaborately devised dolls, forming a colorful procession. The float procession for Sumiyoshi Shrine's main festival starts at 14:00 on the 5th, and for Juzo Shrine's main festival at 8:40 on the 6th. Various events are also held at each shrine.

Getting there

From Kanazawa Station, take the Wajima Express Bus for about 2 hours 30 minutes and get off at Wajima Marine Town. It is about a 15-minute walk to Sumiyoshi Shrine and about a 5-minute walk to Juzo Shrine. By car, it is about 20 minutes from Noto-Mii Interchange on the Noto Satoyama Kaido.