This is one of the three major fighting festivals in Japan and has a tradition three hundred years in the making. This festival is so vibrant that throughout the town you can hear the beat of Japanese drums like an earthquake as huge floats crash together in battle. Hachiman Shrine becomes the main stage for the festival, after the floats are paraded around the streets.
The 2024 festival was held from October 4th to 6th, Friday to Sunday. The main day of the festival, in which the floats clash in front of the shrine, takes place on the Saturday, and is the only day to see the main showpiece of the festival. Although the action starts at 8.30pm, many people choose to go to the shrine much earlier, since the shrine grounds get very busy once the floats enter.
| Website | https://iizaka.info/event-schedule/ |
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| Contact | Fukushima City Tourism & Convention Association (+81) 24-563-5554 |
| Best Season |
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| Entrance Fee | Free |
| Related info | 2024 Dates: October 4 (Friday), 5 (Saturday), and 6 (Sunday). Held every year on the first Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of October. *Saturday is the only day during the festival when you can see the floats crashing into each other. |
| Access | Hachiman Shrine, 1 Yawata, Iizaka-machi, Fukushima City, Fukushima Pref. 962-0866 View directions |
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| Getting there | By Train: Hachiman Shrine is a short walk from Iizaka Onsen Station on the Fukushima Kotsu Iizaka Line. |
A rural landing field located 10 km Northwest of central Fukushima City. Starting with the Azuma Mountain range, the beautiful mountain vistas surrounding this massive location will leave you mesmerized. In addition to aircraft take-off and landing practice, it is possible to use the Fukushima Sky Park for various events. It is widely used for music events, automobile and motorcycle test drives, and a test venue for public organizations.
Try matcha green tea in a traditional tea house in Suirakuen Garden, located inside Nanko Park. Suirakuen Garden is also a popular place to visit for its fall foliage.
There are records of Shirakawa Daruma (Japanese traditional dolls) being sold as far back as the feudal reign of the Niwa Domain in 1627. Current Shirakawa Daruma are known as “Shirakawa Tsurugame Shochikubai Daruma.” The faces of these dolls are painted to incorporate various animals and plants, with the eyebrows representing cranes, the mustache representing a turtle, the ears representing pines and plum trees, and the beard representing bamboo or pine trees. All of these images are thought to bring good luck. The daruma is known to be a very classical, lucky talisman, started by Matsudaira Sadanobu, the lord of Shirakawa, when he hired the renowned painter Tani Buncho to paint the now famous face on the daruma doll. Once every year a large Shirakawa Daruma Market is held to celebrate and sell the beloved daruma dolls. You can paint your own daruma at the two daruma workshops in town!
Ebisu Circuit – revered as a drift racing paradise – is visited every year by lots of international visitors. Ebisu Circuit’s ‘Drift Taxi’ experience lets you ride as a passenger in a special drifting car while a professional Drift School Teacher speeds around the circuit! Booking and more information here.
The Nihonmatsu Lantern Festival is held yearly on the first Saturday, Sunday, and Monday of October. The main night of the 2024 festival (with all the lantern floats in one place) was held on Saturday 5th October, with smaller festival events held on Sunday 6th and on Monday 7th.The highlight of the festival is the procession of festival floats during the first evening. Seven large festival floats adorned with lanterns and filled with locals playing taiko drums make their way through the streets of Nihonmatsu City, filling the streets with festival music as they move. The final destination for the floats is the Nihonmatsu Shrine.The festival traces its roots back to 1643, when Niwa Mitsushige became the lord of the Nihonmatsu clan. Believing that fostering religious piety was a core tenet of strong government, Lord Niwa had Nihonmatsu Shrine built the following year, and opened its gates for anyone in the domain to visit. It’s said that in the first festival, the young people of the town carried a portable shrine (mikoshi) through the streets - in an era where there was a strict class system in place, encouraging widespread religious fervour in this sense was a progressive approach.As a result, historians say the local people came to greatly love and respect their lord, and before long the festival grew into a magnificent spectacle including dancing, huge drumming floats and hanging lanterns. The tradition has continued to this day, where the beautiful illuminated floats rolling through the streets is the backbone of an important yearly event for local people.
Each year from mid-October to mid-November, an impressive collection of dolls adorned with chrysanthemum flowers (known as ‘kiku ningyo’) are on display at the Kasumigajo Castle Grounds in Nihonmatsu City, for one of Japan’s salient Chrysanthemum festivals. The city prides itself in its cultivation and cherishing of chrysanthemums, the National Flower of Japan. Several places in the city are adorned with chrysanthemums during the festival period.Kasumigajo Castle, also known as Nihonmatsu Castle, was destroyed during the Boshin War in the 19th century. Visitors can climb up the castle ruins, of which only the walls remain, and enjoy a view of Nihonmatsu City from above. The castle was made into a prefectural natural park and is beautifully preserved, with many cherry blossom trees and flowers in bloom in the spring, as well as stunning foliage in the fall.
Shirakawa Daruma Market is held annually on February 11. On this date, the streets become lined for 1.5 km with stalls selling Daruma of all shapes and sizes. This lively, exciting market celebrates the culture and history of Shirakawa Daruma – a traditional doll which is characterised by having cranes for eyebrows, a tortoise for a moustache, beard made of bamboo, and pine and plum branches for cheeks, all of which make it a very auspicious item to keep at home.
One of the largest scale events in the prefecture, this fireworks show features stunning firework displays, a hanabi-e-maki performance which combines music and fireworks, and displays from firework masters throughout Japan. Around 10,000 fireworks can be enjoyed during this 1.5 hour event.