Top 8 Cultural Events in Hokuriku, Chubu

The Fushiki Hikiyama Festival, also known as "Fight Mountain," is a yearly spring festival held on 5/15 at Hikiyama Shrine. The hikiyama (festival float) during the day are decorated with flowers, and at night the floats are decorated with a huge number of paper lanterns. The main highlight of the event is the kaccha, in which 6 floats covered in paper lanterns are rocked violently and crashed into each other to the beat of taiko drums and hayashi (Japanese orchestra) accompaniment. On 5/14, the eve of the festival, the flower-decorated floats will be lined up for an illuminated display.

The Owara Kaze no Bon is a folk rite that has been passed down through the generations by residents of the Yatsuo area in Toyama. It is believed to trace as far back as the Genroku era (1688-1704). Dancers in traditional straw hats parade around town, dancing to the tune of a traditional song. While this event is very local in nature and not intended for export, the lovely dancing ladies and the proud dancing men are a moving sight. For this reason, 250,000 people visit between September 1 and 3.

The Shobuyu Matsuri festivals in Kaga Onsen, Ishikawa are held during the Boys' Day celebration, which takes place in early June of the lunar calendar. The festivals serve to ask the gods for a year of sound health. Of these, the most renowned is the Yamashiro Onsen Shobuyu Matsuri. On the first day of the festival, young men walk through the hot-springs district, carrying portable shrines made of straw bales with irises inside. The irises are later thrown into Yamashiro Onsen. The scent of irises fills the town this night, and visitors can enjoy baths with iris petals throughout at hot-spring inns throughout the village.

This festival is held in late September at Yamanaka Onsen in Kaga, Ishikawa. During the day, portable shrines for young men and the women who work at the hot springs patrol the town, and a giant traditional lion's-head costume is paraded throughout the city. At night, locals and tourists alike flock to the Yamanaka Theatre at the center of town to dance and sing the traditional songs of Yamanaka. The event is also host to a lacquerware flea market. This normally sedate hot-springs town becomes quite a bustling center of activity for these two days!

The Takaoka Mikurumayama Matsuri is a regular spring festival that is held annually on 5/1 at the Takaoka Sekino Shrine in Takaoka, Toyama Prefecture. The most historic dashi-matsuri (float festival) in the prefecture, special floats called mikuruyama - nationally designated as Important Tangible and Important Intangible Folk Cultural Properties - are paraded around the city to hayashi (Japanese orchestra) accompaniment. These must-see floats are among Japan's best, gorgeously decorated with refined traditional techniques in lacquering, goldsmithing and dyeing that have been passed down in Takaoka since the Azuchi-Muromachi period (1558-1600). 7 Such floats - constructed by master craftsmen of the Edo period - can be seen in all their splendor. On the eve of the festival, a few of the floats will be illuminated for a pre-festival display.

The Sanno Matsuri is a regular spring festival held every year from 5/31-6/2 at Hie Shrine in Toyama, Toyama Prefecture. Lovingly referred to as "Sannosan," this festival is the largest in the city, with an attendance of over 200,000 every year.

The Toide Tanabata Festival is a traditional event that takes places every July in the Toide district of Takaoka, Toyama prefecture. This region traditionally observes July 7th as a boy's festival, and even today families with male children make tanabata decorations wishing for their child's health and growth. A wonderful balance of old-time bamboo decorations like tanzaku (long, narrow cards for prayers or poems), paper lanterns, paper balls, and streamers are arranged for a sight that could be called the best in Japan - or the world. Dominated by a jumbo 18 meter tanabata, 1,500 wish-filled tanabata decorations of various sizes inject the shopping district with color and dynamism. The festival boasts a wide variety of events, including folk song dances, tanabata contests, and live music. At night the "Tanabata Tunnel" is illuminated with paper lanterns, creating a magical experience.