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Karatsu Kunchi

Rights now, the city of Karatsu in Japan is hosting the annual festival Karatsu Kunchi, with parades and huge floats being drawn through the streets!

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For about 400 years, Karatsu, on Kyushu island, is hosting a 3-day festival with parades highlighting 14 gigantic Hikiyama floats through the streets and along Nishinohama beach. Karatsu Kunchi (kunchi meaning festival) is the most important event of the year in Karatsu and drags people for all around Karatsu. Up to 500,000 people at a time come attend the parades. For 3 days, schools are closed for the occasion.

The floats represent lion heads, samurai heads, a bream fish, dragons and other fantastic creatures. They’re made of lacquered wood and covered with gold and silver leaves. The biggest floats are close to 7 meters high and weighs up to 5 tons. They are drawn by the inhabitants thanks to long cords. The oldest float is Akajishi, the Red Lion, which was made in 1819. If the festival is only on November 2-4 every year, people can still see the floats all year long at Hikiyama Float Exhibition Hall, close to Karatsu-jinja Shrine. 

 
 
 
 

The people drawing the floats are chosen in the families living in the 14 traditional districts of Karatsu, among all generations. Yet most districts only allow men to be part of it. They wear traditional clothes representing their district. They parade singing "En-ya! En-ya! En-ya!" or "Yoi-sa! Yoi-sa! Yoi-sa!" to the music of taiko and flutes. As some street are very narrow and a part of the parade is taking place on the beach, drawing the floats can be very hard and there sometimes are accidents.

The highlight of the festival is the second day for Otabisho Shinko. The 14 floats are drwn on the sand of Nishinohama beach. The scenery, the crowd, the floats and the music make it an outstanding event that is even broadcast on TV and on the Internet, fascinating viewers from Karatsu to all Japan and even worldwide.

In 1980, the Japanese government made Karatsu Kunchi an "Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property."

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Tags :

  • Tourism
  • Culture & traditions
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