Northern Japan · Akita · Semboku
Kakunodate Festival
角館のお祭り
When the talks over who yields break down, the floats settle it by force.
Next
7–9 September 2027
315 days away
Every year, 7 September, for 3 days
Future dates: 7 September 2027 · 7 September 2028 · 7 September 2029
Origin
Formally the *Kakunodate Matsuri no Yama Gyōji*. It was designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property on 21 February 1991 and inscribed by UNESCO in 2016 as one of Japan’s float rites; it is kept by the Kakunodate Festival Preservation Society. Among the features the Agency for Cultural Affairs names as distinctive are the fixed sites for the standing floats, **the posting of a negotiator’s station in each neighbourhood to handle dealings with the others**, the floats being pulled chiefly by the young men of the neighbourhood, and the music played on board.
What to look for
Eighteen neighbourhoods bring out eighteen floats carrying warrior and kabuki figures. When two meet in a narrow street, the first thing that happens is a negotiation over which gives way — not improvised, but handled by the station each neighbourhood posts for the purpose. **Only when that fails do they force the passage — and that is the *yama-buttsuke*.** The collision is not the object; it is what happens when the talking does not work. On the eighth there is also a scheduled version staged for visitors. The destination changes by day: the shrine on the seventh, the samurai quarter and an audience with the head of the Satake northern house on the eighth, and the temple hall on the eighth and ninth.
How to watch
**The floats really do collide.** The lanes are narrow and there are places with no room to step back. Never get between the pulling lines and a float. While a negotiation is under way nothing moves — and then, if it fails, everything moves at once, so stand where you can get clear. It continues after dark; be especially careful in the unlit lanes.
If you go
**The dates are fixed, so the weekdays shift and some years fall mid-week.** The floats run on all three days. **A collision that comes out of a failed negotiation cannot be timed — but on the eighth there are scheduled ones staged around the town, so that is the day if you want to be sure of seeing it.** It is within walking distance of Kakunodate station, and the samurai quarter is part of the ground.
Where
The streets of Kakunodate
Semboku, Akita
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