Taimatsu Akashi (Torch Festival)

Taimatsu Akashi (Torch Festival)

With a history stretching back over 400 years, the Taimatsu Akashi is one of the three major fire festivals in Japan. As the night grows darker and the bonfires flare brightly here and there around the venue, groups of local junior high and senior high school students march through the town carrying 30 8-meter-long wooden torches called Hon-taimatsu, which they created by themselves, followed by a group of young men carrying the huge wooden torch called the Dai-taimatsu (10 meters long and weighing about 3 tons), and a group of women carrying a smaller wooden torch called the Hime-taimatsu (6 meters long and weighing 1 ton). These torches are carried to the top of Mt. Gorozan.

There is also a wooden frame depicting Sukagawa Castle and a group of samurai warriors. As the drummers from Oushu Sukagawa Taimatsu-Daiko Hozonkai powerfully beat their Taimatsu-Daiko drums, the torches and the wooden frame are lit with a sacred fire carried up by a group of runners from Nikaido Shrine. The whole mountain looks as if it is on fire. The combination of fire and the beating of the drums is reminiscent of the days in the Warring States period. Local students form chanting squads to cheer on their torch as it burns - this main section with the flaming torches takes around an hour.

In recent years, this traditional event has become well known as a participatory festival, allowing neighborhood associations, local elementary school pupils, and tourists to join the parade to Mt. Gorozan, each carrying a thin torchwood called a Sho-taimatsu (10 cm in diameter).


2024 ROUTE MAP IN ENGLISH


The schedule for the 2024 festival was as follows:

11:00 Midorigaoka Park Grass Square

Food and drink corner

 

13:00-16:00     tette

Small torch making corner

Note: After making your torch, you can join the small torch procession at 17.15.

 

13:00-16:00     Taimatsu Street Sukagawa Shinkin Bank Head Office (Parking Lot)

Commemorative photo with warriors in armor

Free Sengoku Nabe (pork soup) while stocks last

Sale of agricultural products

Shizuoka City Specialty Products Corner

Taimatsu Akashi Historic Site and Battlefield Walk Meeting Point (15:15)

Karate demonstration

 

13:30-14:10     In front of Yoshida Clinic on Taimatsu Street

Torch presentation

 

14:00   Torch Street Miyasakicho area

Sukagawa First Junior High School torch parade start

 

15:00   In front of Yoshida Clinic on Taimatsu Street

Large torch departure

 

17:30-17:45     Nikaido Shrine

Sacred fire offering ceremony (receiving the sacred fire to light the torch)

 

17:00 (scheduled)       Myoken Children's Park

Local organisations torch procession starts

 

17:15-18:00     Miharashibashi Parking Lot  

General torch procession starts

Please participate with small torches made at the small torch crafting corner.

Small torches will also be available for purchase (500 yen each, limited to 100)

 

18:00-19:45     Mt. Goro Special Stage

Taiko drum performances

 

18:30   Mt. Goro main festival area

The large torch and 20 main torches are lit in sequence.

Venue Details

Venue Details
Websitehttp://www.sukagawa-kankoukyoukai.jp/Event/page08.html(Automated translation available)
Contact

Sukagawa City Tourism Association

(+81) 248-88-9144

Best Season
  • Winter
ParkingAvailable (Spaces for close to 2000 cars around the venue)
Related infoEvent tends to start from 6:30 PM
Access Details
AccessMt. Gorozan in Midorigaoka Park, Kuriyasawa, Sukagawa City, Fukushima Pref. 962-0866
View directions
Getting there

By Car: 10 min from the Sukagawa I.C. exit off the Tohoku Expressway

By Train: 10 min taxi ride from Sukagawa Station on the JR Tohoku Main Line

Nearby

The World Glassware Hall
Cultural Experiences

Design Your Own Shirakawa Daruma

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!

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