Akita Festivals

Major Akita Festivals

Akita Kanto Festival

Akita which resides in the Northern part of Japan is home to many unique cultural events. One of them is the Akita Kanto Festival. It is held from August 5-7 and the purpose of the festival is to wish for a plentiful and successful grain harvest. About 1.3 million people attend the festival. A Kanto is a group of candle-lit lanterns attached to a bamboo frame. Each of the lanterns is supposed to represent an individual grain of rice which is Akita’s most well-known and famous crop. The performers balance these heavy poles on their hands, head, back, and other body parts to demonstrate their balance and strength. During the festival you can see at least 200 Kanto which amounts to at least 10,000 lanterns. Since the festival often spans a couple of days, on the last day of the festival a Kanto contest is usually held in which participants try to show their strength and technique with their Kanto poles. The festival goes back to the 18^th century when people prayed for bountiful harvests and the ridding of illness and evil spirits from one’s life.

Kamakura Festival

The Kamakura festival is held on February 15^th and 16^th in Yokote City in the Akita prefecture. For this festival, young adults put on masks and go around to all the houses and scare the children, thus bringing good fortune. The word Kamakura means a small igloo-like structure that is made entirely of snow. Since Yokote City is located in the northern prefecture of Akita, construction of these small igloos is relatively easy due to the abundance of snow as a result of the cold climate.

The kamakura has a height of approximately 2 meters. Inside there is one big room and an altar for people to place a statue of the water deity so that they can pray for things such as academic success, safety for their family, and a successful harvest. Blankets are laid on the ground so people don’t have to sit on the cold snow. Also a small cooking stove is installed so that families can enjoy foods such as toasted rice cakes and amazake which is a fermented rice drink.

Oftentimes smaller snow domes are constructed and a candle is put inside for decoration.

Namahage Festival

The Namahage festival takes place on the Oga peninsula of Akita Prefecture during New Year’s. At this time, young men dress up as namahage or fierce demons by wearing scary masks and clothes made out of straw. They go around and burst into all the houses in the village and in a scary voice encourage people such as young wives and children to obey their parent-in laws and work and study hard. Other members of the household protect their wives and children by insisting that they are good people. They then send the namahage away by providing them with food and sake.

In Akita in particular, the Namahage Sedo festival also includes a sacred dance called Chinkamayu no Mai which is unique to this region of Japan. The young men playing the Namahage then dance to drum music. Finally, the namahage march down the mountain with torches and pass out rice cakes to all the attendees. These cakes help keep disaster and illness away from those who eat them.

Omagari National Fireworks Competition

This firework competition is the 3^rd biggest in Japan. It is held on the 4^th Saturday of August on the Omono-gawa which is a river in Akita. More than 600,000 people come from all over Japan to see some of top 30 or so firework makers launch their handmade fireworks in colorful display of lights and sound. The town of Omagari only has a population of 60,000 people so the audience is at least 10 times the size of the normal population. The fireworks are split into 3 categories: day fireworks, night fireworks, and the most creative. During the night fireworks, companies have 2 and a half minutes to display their designs to music of their choice.