Karatsu Kunchi Festival

Karatsu Kunchi designated as part of Japan's important intangible ethnic and cultural heritage, is an autumn festival at the Karatsu Shrine. It takes place annually from November 2 to 4.
In 1980 Karatsu Kunchi was designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property as part of Japan's intangible ethnic and cultural heritage. Karatsu Kunchi is an epic event in which local people, in time with rhythmical music, as many as 14 enormous floats with huge lanterns representing sea bream, lions, samurai helmets and other designs are carried swinging through the town and, on the second day, down to the sea. The floats, which are built from gilded paper, date back to the 19th century. Every year, over 150,000 spectators crowd the streets to celebrate the harvest. After the festival, the floats are exhibited in the float museum behind the Karatsu Shrine

Background History

Karatsu Kunchi is an autumn festival which dates back 400 years sees huge hikiyama floats with some being up to 6.8 meters tall and being 3 tons in weight.  The floats are in the design of Samurai helmets, sea bream, grampuses, a flying dragon called hiryo and a lion which dates back to 1819.  The highlight of the festival is on the second day when the floats are paraded along the sand at Nishinohama Beach, are accompanied by the sound of flutes and drums.

The festival starts with the ceremony to thank the deities for the year’s rich harvest and success of business. During the three days of the festival the whole town is in a festival mood and approximately 500,000 visitors come to see the festival. It is one of the Three Kunchi Festivals in Japan. It is a nationally designated Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property. Normally an inevitable accompaniment to a festival is a mikoshi (portable shrine), but at Karatsu Kunchi Festival the 14 huge floats called Hikiyama parade through the town. Hikiyama, which are topped with a large decoration in the form of samurai helmets, sea bream, and other fantastical creatures, are made by Icchobari lacqering technique (lacquering over the wooden base covered with hundreds of sheets of washi paper). Assets and the Hikiyama event is a designated National Important Intangible Folk Cultural Asset. The sea bream Hikiyama joined a carnival in Nice in France in 1979. Hikiyama floats are displayed and open to public all through the yea