Fukuoka Festival Calendar
August 八月 hazuki (leaf month)
Hanabi You can’t turn the corner in August without stumbling across another festival – don a yukata, catch some goldfish and enjoy the fireworks (hanabi) at these summer events.
The most well-known is in Kurume, where the Water Festival (3th-5th), featuring a parade of thousands of dancers along Meiji-dori, ends with the largest firework display in Western Japan, held on the banks of the Chikugo River.
In the first week of the month, the Wasshoi Summer Matsuri in Kokura ends with a great fireworks show, after thousands of happi-wearing festival-goers parade through streets near the castle.
Kanmon Kaiko Hanabi (13th) is a fireworks showdown across the Kanmon strait with rival displays at Shimonsekiand Moji. Be prepared for large crowds on your way home.
Iizuka-shi holds its hanabi display near the Onga river at the end of August. The best viewing spot is the bridge near I-town. Another late August display takes place in Kasuga-shi’s park near the JR Kasuga station.
13th -15th O-bon (Festival of Souls) Across Japan families welcome back the spirits of their ancestors and honor them with bon odori (dances)
Check out Chikugo-shi’s Rope-hauling Matsuri, where soot-smeared children haul their ancestors out of Hell with giant ropes, O-bon dances in Yamada-shi and at the Chikuzen Nakama-gawa Matsuri (15th) and the Irei Matsuri(21st) in Miyako-machi which concludes with a spectacular fireworks display.
September 九月 nagatsuki (long month)
The Kurume Yakitori Festival (9th) celebrates this city’s obsession with all things skewered and grilled. Vendors from all over Kyushu converge on Rokkakudo square. The date (9-4) was chosen because ku-shi also means “skewered things”. You can smell this festival before you can see it.
Kusano-machi’s Furyu Festival features a lion dance (shishi mai) in which children have their heads nibbled by the lion as a sign of good luck. (2nd week)
Himawari (sunflowers) bloom in August and September. Haki-machi celebrates its most famous flower mid-September and Miyako-machi throughout the season.
From the 12th to 18th, Hojoya, an early harvest festival with a carnival feel is held biannually at Hakozaki Shrine,Hakata. It’s one of Hakata’s top three matsuri.
Moon viewing (tsukimi) The harvest moon of the eighth lunar month (now September) is considered the most beautiful. In Fukuoka-ken the place to do this is up Tenpai-zan at Chikushino’s Kangetsukai. The only way to view it properly is drunk on sake, of course.
Yame-shi’s Dento Kogeikan (Traditional Arts Museum) puts on a Toro ningyo (a type of puppet theatre related to Noh) performance every year. There are also the usual stalls selling food, drinks and agricultural products. (21st or 22nd- please call 0943-23-1111 for more info on Yame festivals)
Towards the end of the month is Sunset Live, an annual world music festival on Keya Beach. www. beachcafesunset.com/index2.htm
Over 1000 lit lanterns fill the night sky during Koge-machi’s Bamboo Lantern Festival at the end of the month.
October 十月 kaminazuki (month without gods)
Kanda-Machi’s biggest festival of Fighting Yamakasa takes place at the Kanda Ward Office on the first weekend of the month. 500 years of tradition and the chance to witness people ramming their floats into each other make this worth seeing.
In early October Okawa holds its Mokkosai, a three day extravaganza featuring races between teams dressed as giantmukade (centipedes). Call 0944-87-6919 for more info. Maebaru’s Citizen’s Festival is held around this time – its a good place to see the townspeople at their wacky best, donning various bizarre costumes and choosing a prince and princess to watch over the festivities.
Chikuzen-Machi holds its Omunachi Shrine Okuchi festival towards the end of the month. Its history goes back over 700 years and features parades imitating Daimyo (feudal lords) processions.
Harvest festivals are common at this time of year. Don Kyan Kyan in Setaka offers prayers for a rich harvest accompanied by lots of drums. Yanagawashi holds its Onigie Matsuri, where floats are pulled to Mihashira Shrine to thank the gods for a fruitful harvest, in early October. Fukuoka-shi has its harvest Okunchi on the 3rd weekend atKushida shrine, Hakata. It features a parade with bull drawn floats and children dancers.
Takata-machi hosts one of only two amateur Noh Festivals in Japan on the 17th. From 3- 10pm local men perform atHouman Shrine. The exaggerated body language will make up for any Japanese ability you lack. From Yanagawa station take the local Omuta-bound train for five stops to Hiraki. The shrine is a block from the station.
November 十一月 shimotsuki (frost month)
Chikuzen machi holds its Kakashi (scarecrow) Matsuri on the first weekend of the month, an important festival for this agricultural town.
The Koge-machi Gyurashi Festival on the first Sunday concludes with a spectacular fireworks display.
Buzen celebrates its mascot, a cartoon-like crow, on the 2nd, at Tenchizan-koen. Highlights include a citywidetsunahiki (tug-of-war) and a giant hot air balloon.
In the first week of November, Yanagawa pays homage to its famous son, poet Hakushu Kitahara. The three day longHakushusai features nightly processions of boats along the canal, which is lined with paper lanterns. On the banks are displays of various Japanese traditions including taiko, shamisen, dance and puppetry. The parade culminates in a 40 minute concert, followed by fireworks. Not to be missed.
From the 12th to 26th Fukuoka-shi hosts the annual Sumo tournament, the Kyushu Basho. Buy tickets from your localcombini.
December 十二月 shiwasu (priests run)
So called because of the preparations every shrine and temple makes in the last days of the month (osh?gatsu) – ritual cleaning is an important part of the New Year traditions. Every shrine holds a New Year ceremony (Omisoka) on the31st: the most popular being Dazaifu’s Tenman-gu, where the crowds are so thick you might have trouble moving. At Buddhist temples 108 bell chimes before midnight signify the earthly desires being cast out to start the New Year afresh.
Haki-machi hosts a bizarre fertility ritual on the 2nd. During the Oshiroi Matsuri newly ground rice is mixed with water and spread on participants faces. The more rice that sticks, the more luck in the New Year.
Kurogi-machi holds its Town Festival on the 8th. This 200 year old tradition involves 44 men who purify themselves in the river before taking part in a Daimyo parade, accompanied by boys playing Japanese drums.
Combining both rice and rivers, Maebaru-shi is home to an ancient purification ceremony at the Kumano Shrine on the 17th. 100 loincloth-clad men plunge into the cold river to wash rice at midnight. This is then transformed into onigirifor the spectators.
January 一月 mutsuki (affection month)
New Year: Head back to the shrines the morning after the night before. People make their first prayers of the year and purchase various good luck charms and fortune papers (omikuji)
In Asakura-shi visitors to the shrine during the first days of the New Year come for a bean drum, called “Bata Bata” said to be a good health charm, especially for pregnant women whom it ensures an easy delivery.
On the 3rd a New Year’s festival predicting this year’s harvests called Tamaseseri, takes place at Hakozaki Shrine inFukuoka-shi. A “land” team and “sea” team compete (on piggy back) for a wooden ball. Whichever wins will have a bountiful year in farming or fishing.
Fire Festivals: Long winter nights driving you crazy? Head to one of the fire festivals held in January, most of which conform to a basic structure of drunken, loincloth-clad men carrying giant torches before setting things on fire. On the7th, Daizenji is home to one of the top three fire festivals in Japan, the Oniyo Matsuri at the Tamataregu shrine, two Ltd. Express stops south of Kurume on Nishitetsu. The torches are very big and the men are very drunk.
At Tenman-gu, Dazaifu-shi, on the same weekend, is a similar festival where participants reenact the destruction and burning of a demon’s lair (Onisuge). Prior to this, you can take part in an usokae (bird exchange) around a bonfire, where people chant “kaemasho!” (let’s swap!) and exchange wooden bird figures symbolising the past year’s lies. The bird’s name, uso, also means lie. A few lucky people can win gold birds.
On the 8th-11th Toka Ebisu shrine in Fukuokashi holds a festival for good luck in commerce, stemming from Hakata’s mercantile roots. Be sure to check out the Geisha parade on the 9th.
If you like your matsuri with plenty of bridespanking then the Mukoshi Festival at Kasugashi shrine is for you. On the 14th the community bless those couples married in the last year, then tempers their blessing with some bride-spanking and groom-pushing.
February 二月 kisaragi (changing clothes)
One of the four seasonal divisions (setsubun), Risshun, the first day of spring, takes place on the 3rd. Nationwide rituals are performed at shrines, where the chant “Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi” (Demons out! Luck in!) is accompanied bybeanthrowing to drive bad luck away for the start of the new season. Masks representing the two are sold in the run-up to this date.
Risshun rituals are held in Kurume-shi at Naritasan and Hiyoshi Shrine and in Fukuoka-shi at Kushida Shrine and Tochoji Temple.
One of the three major Chikugo area festivals, the Furogu Shrine Matsuri in Okawa-shi, lasts for three days in early February, with runners wearing very little carrying bamboo torches around the town. On the last day, don’t miss the chance to witness the impressive yabusame (horseback archery).
O-sake wa suki desu ka? Head to the Sakagura Sake Matsuri in J?jima on the 11th. Free sake. What more do you need to know?
At the end of the month is the Kinoka Marathon in Okawa-shi. A 10km run around Onojima island, you need to apply before mid January. A shuttle bus runs from Yanagawa station on the day and all participants receive lunch and entry into the prize draw. Contact Okawa City Hall on 0944-87-21-01
Plum Blossoms (Ume no hana) flower towards the middle or end of February. Many shrines and parks will become crowded with people enjoying the blossoms, the overlooked sibling of the showier sakura (cherry blossom) It’s also the Fukuoka prefectural symbol.
March 三月 yayoi (new life)
On the first Sunday a poetry festival, Kyokusuino- En takes place at Dazaifu’s Tenman-gu. Participants dressed in Heian-era robes compose poems by a stream, as laquered cups of sake are floated down to them. They must complete their poems before the cups reach them, then drink.
Hina Matsuri, the festival of Dolls, centers on the 3rd of March. This is also known as Girls’ Day and is celebrated across Japan. The biggest celebration in the area is at Yanagawa where the festivities go on from early February until April. Around the middle of March, boats carrying girls dressed as dolls float down the canals. See: www. yanagawa-net.com.
Matsuri also take place in Ukiha-shi, which rivals Yanagawa with its sagemon (doll displays) and Yame, which holds atoro ningyo performance, and exhibits dolls around town throughout March – see especially the Doll Museum off Route 442, towards Joyo.
On the last Sunday of the month, the Kurume Nanohana Festival takes place on the banks of Chikugo-kawa, celebrating the flower immortalized in a poem by Soseki, which “spreads its yellow far beyond the Chikugo River”.
Deemed an “intangible cultural asset”, the Buzenshi Otaue Matsuri (29th) celebrates the planting of the new rice. Sacred dances and music narrate the process, over 1000 years old, at Kunitama shrine. Call 097-982-1111 for more info.
Towards the end of the month, the sakura begin to bloom. O-Hanami (cherry blossom viewing) parties take place everywhere from late March to early April. Kokura Castle in Kitakyushu, Nishikoen in Fukuoka-shi, Gozu Tenno-koen in Kogemachi and Habu-koen in Nakama-shi are all prime locations. The idea is to appreciate the transience of life embodied by the fragile blossom. And the best way to do this, naturally, is drunk on sake.
April 四月 uzuki (u-no-hana month)
Pottery Festivals take place throughout the region this month, the largest being across the border in Arita, Saga-ken on the last weekend of April. Within Fukuoka-ken, there are also festivals in Yasu-machi and Koishiwara-mura in late Apriland early May. At all these events you can meet the potters and buy their wares at reduced prices. Kurume Tsutsuji Festival – April 5th- May 5th. World renowned for its tsutsuji (azaleas) Kurume holds a huge exhibition and display at the Hyakunen-koen.
The Tokakuji Matsuri is held mid-April at Hakusan Taga shrine in Kanda-machi, and involves various purification rituals, as well as horseback archery. Call 0934-36-1645 for more info.
From late April, the wisteria flowers bloom in Kurogi-machi and at Kisshoji Temple, Nakamashi. The Giant Wisteria in Kurogi-machi is 600 years old and the symbol of the town. Its blooming attracts big crowds and media from late April to early May. The wisteria at Kisshoji Temple (located near Nakama High School, Yahatanishiku) is celebrated from the 27th to 29th
May 五月 satsuki (fast month)
Held during Golden Week (28th April – 5th May), the Hon-machi Gion Festival in Buzen-shi is the area’s biggest event. It lasts for three days and features floats from the two neighborhoods, pulled up and down the street by the local community.
On the first weekend of May is the Hakata Dontaku harbour matsuri. A giant parade with nighttime illuminations, geisha dances and floats, its roots lie in the Muromachi era, over 500 years ago.
Spring Festivals take place at the region’s two Suitengu shrines in Yanagawa (3rd-5th) and Kurume (5th-7th). Suitengu shrines prevent water related disasters and protect children. The Yanagawa matsuri features a water-borne parade complete with floating shrine.
On the third weekend, one of the biggest festivals in Kyushu, the Kawa-watari Jinkosai (river crossing procession) is held in Tagawa. Yamakasa (mobile shrines) are pulled through the city and, uniquely to Tagawa, across the nearby river, where teams also battle each other in the water. Festivities carry on into the early hours and start again the next morning. Huge crowds flock to Tagawa for this festival, so plan ahead.
The Kanda Port Festival on the third Saturday of May is a popular fireworks display with traditional Japanese dances, a laser show and music. 10 minutes from the Kanda JR station in Saiwa- machi.
June 六月 minatsuki (month of water)
Too wet for fun.
The 11th is known as nyubai and heralds the start of the rainy season (tsuyu) From mid-June onwards head to Chouon-no-taki Waterfall, in Ukiha-shi, where you can cool down and enjoy swimming, fishing and iced somen noodles, a summer specialty.
July 七月 fumizuki (book month)
July is yamakasa season – the 1 ton floats raced by (usually) semi-naked men. Spectators help them by dousing them with “power water”. The most famous matsuri is the Hakata Gion Yamakasa - local teams race their floats along a set course for 5km yelling “Oissa! Oissa!”. The matsuri attracts over 80 000 visitors from across Japan (1st - 15th)
Iizuka-shi holds its own Yamakasa matsuri mid- July, Amagi’s Gion Yamakasa is from the 13th to 15th.
Other summer festivals include three in the Kitakyushu region: the Kurosaki Gion in Yahatanishi-ku (20th-23rd) theKokura Gion Daiko (drumming) festival (third weekend) and the Tobata Gion festival, featuring towering floats of illuminated lanterns. (last weekend)
Way down in Omuta-shi, the Daijayama matsuri (last weekend) is a heady nighttime parade of firebreathing dragon floats, drunken debauchery and dancing in the streets. Unagi - If all the summer partying and humidity is leaving you exhausted, try unagi (grilled eel) eaten in the height of summer to restore energy. On ushinohi, (the day of the cow) in late July, when eel is meant to taste best, head to Yanagawa, famous across the ken for its unagi.