Hanawa Bayashi
licensed photographMarho / CC BY-SA 4.0

Kazuno, Akita · HanawaNo.1254★★Open in map →

Hanawa Bayashi

— Ten gilded floats and festival music through the night

cultureOff the trail — and worth it

On 19 and 20 August, Hanawa in Kazuno fills with ten gilded floats and music that runs through the night. Offered to the local guardian shrine, it is counted among Japan's three great festival musics and inscribed by UNESCO as a float festival.

  1. FromMorioka Station
  2. ~1 hr 35 minExpress bus from Morioka, about hourly
  3. Get off atKazuno-Hanawa Station (JR Hanawa Line)
  4. On foot
  5. Hanawa Bayashi
Directions ↗

The sweet spot

It is not hidden: the station-plaza evening, the festival's main event, even has paid stand seating. What is easy to miss is how long it lasts. The floats keep playing after midnight and into the small hours. And outside the festival, the same floats wait in an exhibition hall at the roadside station.

Where it is

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What to look for

Kazuno-Hanawa Station plazaMarho / CC BY-SA 4.0
  1. Kazuno-Hanawa Station plazaopen space outside the station where all ten floats gather on the festival's main evening
  2. The otabishotemporary seat of the portable shrine in town, first stop of the opening-night parade
  3. Hanawa Bayashi Festival Exhibition Hallhall at Michi-no-Eki Kazuno showing floats that are used in the festival itself
  4. Taiko cornerhands-on drums inside the hall, beside films and panels on Kazuno's festivals
  5. Sakiwai Inari Shrineguardian shrine of Hanawa that the music is offered to, east of the town centre

How to actually get there

  1. Tokyo → Morioka Station (Tohoku Shinkansen).
  2. Morioka Station west exit → Kazuno-Hanawa Station (Michinoku express bus, about 1 hr 25 min).
  3. Step out onto the station plaza, the stage for the festival's main evening.
  4. Walk south about 10 min to the exhibition hall at Michi-no-Eki Kazuno to see the floats up close.
Express bus from Morioka
From Morioka Station's west exit (stop 22), the Michinoku express bus reaches Kazuno-Hanawa Station in about 1 hour 25 minutes. It runs roughly hourly through the day, and no reservation is needed. The station plaza is right outside, and the exhibition hall is a short walk south.
Back to Morioka
The Michinoku bus also runs back from Kazuno-Hanawa Station, but its last departure leaves in the early evening, before the station-plaza gathering. To see the night events, plan on staying in Kazuno.
Directions from my location (Google Maps) ↗

About the place

Hanawa is the town centre of Kazuno, in the north-east of Akita Prefecture. Its festival music is offered to Sakiwai Inari Shrine, the guardian shrine of the district. Ten neighbourhoods each bring out a float, finished in lacquer and gold, and the floats move through the streets to their own music. On the first evening they set out for the otabisho, where the portable shrine rests during the festival, and then move on to the station plaza. There all ten floats gather in one place and play together. The music does not stop when the plaza empties; it carries on through the night.

How to enjoy it

On the first evening the floats leave their neighbourhoods at 17:30, and the station-plaza gathering follows after dark. From midnight the asazume procession takes over, so staying up is part of the experience. Outside the festival, the exhibition hall shows the floats year-round and closes for the festival period itself; live performances are held there on some dates, so check its schedule.

Background & history

The music is traditionally said to date back to the late Heian period. Sakiwai Inari Shrine lost its early records to fire, and the lord of the Nanbu domain rebuilt it in 1470. The shrine's festival day is 16 August, when its portable shrine is carried to the otabisho in town. The state designated the float procession, as the Hanawa Matsuri Yatai Gyoji, an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property in 2014. In 2016 UNESCO inscribed it as one of Japan's Yama, Hoko, Yatai float festivals.

Before you go

Cash
The stand seats at the station plaza are paid and sold in advance. The exhibition hall charges admission. The Michinoku bus accepts Suica and other transport IC cards.
Before you go
The festival dates are the same every year. Roads in central Hanawa are closed to traffic on the festival days, and Kazuno City publishes a traffic-control map each year. The exhibition hall closes for the festival period.
Another way
From Tokyo, the overnight Jupiter bus runs from Ikebukuro to Kazuno-Hanawa. By car, Kazuno-Hachimantai IC on the Tohoku Expressway is about 5 minutes from central Hanawa.
After you get off
The station plaza is directly outside Kazuno-Hanawa Station. The exhibition hall at Michi-no-Eki Kazuno is about 10 minutes' walk to the south.