Central Japan · Shizuoka · Hamamatsu

Hamamatsu Festival

浜松まつり

Three days in May when Hamamatsu celebrates its firstborn children: by day, great kites fight to cut one another’s strings above the Nakatajima dunes; by night, carved palace floats roll through the city centre.

3–5 May 2027

186 days away

Every year, 3 May, for 3 days

Future dates: 3 May 2027 · 3 May 2028 · 3 May 2029

Origin

According to the organising committee, this is a citizens’ festival with no connection to any shrine or temple: its purpose is to celebrate the birth of each family’s first child and pray, as a community, for the children to grow up well. One story traces it to the 1560s, when a kite was flown high over Hikuma Castle to celebrate the birth of the lord’s eldest son, but the committee notes there is no record of this; kites appear in documents from the 1790s. The strong dry wind of the region, the Enshū no karakkaze, made it good kite country. The hatsudako — the “first kite” flown for a newborn — and the kite battles took their present shape around 1887. Until the Second World War the battles were held on an army drill ground at Wajiyama; from 1948 they moved to Nakatajima, and in 1950 the event took the name Hamamatsu Matsuri. Where forty or fifty neighbourhoods took part before the war, more than 170 now fly kites and more than 80 bring out floats.

What to look for

At 10 a.m. on 3 May, with the opening declaration and a burst of fireworks, the festival begins at the Nakatajima kite ground. On the 3rd each neighbourhood raises its hatsudako for the children born to it. On the 4th and 5th come the string-cutting battles: crews tangle their lines with a rival’s and saw them against each other until one string parts. At night the centre of the city takes over. Each neighbourhood’s goten-yatai — a “palace float” covered in fine carving — moves slowly along Kajimachi-dōri and nearby streets with its lanterns lit, while children aboard play the festival music, and crowds in happi coats swirl through the streets in the neri, a surging, chanting parade.

How to watch

The committee sets aside free spectator seating for visitors at the kite ground (no reservations, limited places), and asks you to watch out for falling kites. Radio-controlled aircraft and drones are banned, and the grounds are non-smoking.

If you go

There is no public parking at the kite ground; direct shuttle buses run from Hamamatsu Station and from the temporary car park at Iida Park. The kite battles usually run from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., the floats in the evening. Rain can cancel events: the decision is made on the day, around 7:30 a.m. for the kites and 3 p.m. for the floats, and the committee’s information line gives the current status.

Where

Nakatajima kite ground

Hamamatsu, Shizuoka

Open in maps

Sources

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