Chichibu Night Festival

Overview

The Chichibu Night Festival, or Chichibu Yomatsuri, is the annual festival of Chichibu Shrine in Chichibu City, Saitama Prefecture, held every December. Counted alongside the Gion Festival of Kyoto and the Takayama Festival of Gifu as one of the three great float festivals of Japan, it is a leading winter festival of the Kanto region. Two gorgeously decorated kasaboko float-towers and four festival floats are pulled through the streets, and large fireworks are launched into the clear winter night sky, drawing some two hundred thousand spectators each year.

The "Float Ceremony and Kagura of the Chichibu Festival" is designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property of Japan, and in 2016 it was inscribed on the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage as one of thirty-three "Yama, Hoko, Yatai float festivals." Famed for the rarity of launching fireworks during a winter festival and for the breathtaking scene in which floats weighing up to twenty tons are hauled up a steep slope, it is widely known both in Japan and abroad.

History and Origins

Chichibu Shrine is an ancient shrine that has long drawn faith as the general guardian shrine of the Chichibu region. The Chichibu Night Festival, as its annual festival, is said to have taken roughly its present form by the mid-Edo period at the latest, and is held to possess a history of more than three hundred years.

The festival is bound up with a legend that the goddess of Chichibu Shrine and the god of nearby Mount Buko meet once a year for a tryst. The December festival is regarded as the sacred night on which the two deities meet, and the pulling of the kasaboko and floats has been handed down as a celebration of that encounter. Chichibu once flourished as a producer of silk textiles known as Chichibu meisen, and against the backdrop of this economic strength, the festival's float-towers and floats came to be lavishly adorned with fine carvings, metalwork, and curtains. A float culture that absorbed the arts and craftsmanship of Edo underpins the resplendent festival of today.

On December 1, 2016, the intergovernmental committee of UNESCO inscribed thirty-three "Yama, Hoko, Yatai float festivals" as Intangible Cultural Heritage, and the Chichibu Night Festival was recognized among them. This brought the festival recognition not merely as a local rite but as a representative example of Japan's float-festival culture.

Highlights

The Procession of Float-Towers and Floats

The stars of the festival are its two kasaboko float-towers and four festival floats. All are magnificently built and adorned with elaborate carvings, metalwork, and embroidered curtains, the largest reaching a weight of twenty tons. These are pulled through the streets of central Chichibu to the rhythm of spirited float music. Atop the floats, local kabuki theater and dances performed by children are staged, so that the floats also serve as moving stages.

The Haul Up Dango-zaka

The climax of the festival comes on the night of December 3. Each kasaboko and float departs Chichibu Shrine and is hauled in one effort up the steep slope known as Dango-zaka, where the resting place of the deity stands. The sight of crowds of pullers heaving the giant float-towers and floats, weighing nearly twenty tons, up the steep grade to the sound of their cries is the festival's greatest spectacle, and the excitement of the crowd reaches its peak.

Fireworks in the Winter Sky

The Chichibu Night Festival is one of the few festivals in the country to launch large-scale fireworks in winter. Into the crystal-clear December night sky, fireworks are set off over a long period in concert with the pulling of the floats and the haul up Dango-zaka. The scene woven by the great blossoms of fireworks blooming in the cold sky and the lantern-lit glow of the kasaboko and floats is a fantastical beauty unique to the Chichibu Night Festival.

Dates and Access

The Chichibu Night Festival is held with December 2 as the eve festival and December 3 as the grand festival every year. The climactic haul up Dango-zaka and the fireworks are concentrated on the night of December 3.

Chichibu Shrine and its surroundings are within walking distance of Chichibu Station on the Chichibu Railway and Seibu-Chichibu Station on the Seibu Chichibu Line. The site can be reached from central Tokyo using limited express trains of the Seibu Railway and other services. On the festival days, crowds of some two hundred thousand gather and traffic restrictions are in place, so the use of public transport and preparation for the severe cold of the winter night are essential.

Around the Site

Chichibu is one of the Kanto region's foremost destinations for nature and history. Mount Buko, linked to the festival's legend, rises as the symbol of the Chichibu basin, and its form can be seen from many points in the city. At the Chichibu Festival Hall, the festival's permanent exhibition facility, actual kasaboko and floats and scenes of the festival can be viewed throughout the year, so visitors can experience the festival's power even outside the season of the night festival.

The Chichibu region is also known as a pilgrimage site for the thirty-four Kannon temples of Chichibu, and scenic spots dot the area through the seasons, including the gorge scenery and river-boating of Nagatoro and the moss phlox of Hitsujiyama Park. A visit to the Chichibu Night Festival can be combined with a journey through the nature and faith culture of Chichibu.

Related Information

The Chichibu Night Festival is regarded as one of the three great float festivals of Japan, alongside the Gion Festival of Kyoto and the Takayama Festival of Hida, and is also sometimes counted among the three most beautiful festivals of Japan, together with the Takayama Festival and the Kyoto Gion Festival. It shares the float culture handed down throughout Japan with the other float festivals across the country inscribed as part of the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage "Yama, Hoko, Yatai float festivals."

• Dates: December 2 (eve festival), December 3 (grand festival)
• Prefecture: Saitama (Kanto)
• Location: Chichibu Shrine, Chichibu City
• Cultural Property: Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property "Float Ceremony and Kagura of the Chichibu Festival"
• World Heritage: inscribed in 2016 as UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage "Yama, Hoko, Yatai float festivals"
• Scale: two kasaboko and four floats (up to about 20 tons); some 200,000 visitors

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