Akita City · TsuchizakiNo.1274★★Open in map →
Tsuchizaki Minato Hikiyama Festival
On 20 and 21 July, Tsuchizaki, the port district of Akita City, hauls floats dressed with warrior figures through its streets to the Minato-bayashi music. It is the annual festival of Tsuchizaki Shinmeisha shrine, and a UNESCO-listed float event.
- FromAkita Station
- ~8 min by trainJR train from Akita Station
- Get off atTsuchizaki Station (JR Ou Line)
- On foot
- Tsuchizaki Minato Hikiyama Festival
The sweet spot
This is a well-known festival, not a hidden one. It is a nationally designated folk cultural property and part of a UNESCO listing. The part that is easy to miss is the rest of the year. The floats are taken apart as soon as the festival ends, but a real one stands in the port's history museum, where its scale and detail can be seen on any open day.
Where it is
34 more notes in Akita · open the map →What to look for — in walking order
- Tsuchizaki Shinmeishathe shrine at the heart of the festival, where the floats call to pay their respects on the first day
- Honcho-dorithe festival's main street, where the floats pass and street stalls gather
- Float hall, Tsuchizaki Minato Port Area Historical Museuma real float 11.5 m tall, shown indoors all year with footage of the festival
- Permanent exhibition roomthe history of Akita City and Tsuchizaki, including its days as a Kitamae-ship port of call
- Air raid exhibition halldisplays on the Tsuchizaki air raid at the very end of the Pacific War
How to actually get there
- Akita Station → Tsuchizaki Station (JR Ou Line, about 8 min).
- Exit the station on the west side and walk west; Tsuchizaki Shinmeisha is on the left.
- Continue west to Honcho-dori, the festival's main street.
- Walk on to the Tsuchizaki Minato Port Area Historical Museum (about 10 min from the station) to see a real float.
- JR Ou Line from Akita Station
- From Akita Station, take a JR Ou Line train heading north and get off at Tsuchizaki Station, about 8 minutes away. The shrine is a walk of a few hundred metres from the station.
- Back to Akita Station
- Return the same way from Tsuchizaki Station. On the festival night the modori-yama runs late and the streets fill with people, so leave plenty of time to reach the station.
About the place
The festival is the annual rite of Tsuchizaki Shinmeisha, the shrine of Akita's port town. Each participating neighbourhood builds a new float every year, and twenty-odd of them go out in a typical recent year. The front shows a battle scene. Warrior figures, some in armour and some stripped to the waist, pose before a pair of wedded rocks, one male and one female. The back holds a platform for the musicians. On top sits the mikaeshi, a verse that pokes bold fun at politics and the times, beside a comic doll. Haulers pull to the call of 'Joyasa' while the Minato-bayashi music fills the streets.
How to enjoy it
On 20 July the floats leave their neighbourhoods in the morning, call at Tsuchizaki Shinmeisha, and head back home. The highlight is the modori-yama on the night of the 21st, when the floats return to their neighbourhoods to the plaintive Aiya-bushi. The dates are fixed, but check that year's official programme before you travel. Outside July, the museum is open from 9:00 to 17:00 and closed on Tuesdays.
Background & history
The festival traces its start to 1704, when sailors calling at the port donated a portable shrine to Tsuchizaki Shinmeisha. A procession with the portable shrine followed in 1705, and this grew into the port's great festival. The state designated the float event an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property in 1997. In 2016 it was inscribed on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list as one of Japan's Yama, Hoko, Yatai float festivals.
Before you go
- Cash
- The festival takes place on public streets. The museum is free to enter. Street stalls line the roads on festival days, so a little cash is useful.
- Before you go
- The festival dates stay the same each year, but check the detailed float schedule in that year's official programme. The district is crowded on festival days, so the train is the surer way in. The museum is closed on Tuesdays (the next day when Tuesday is a public holiday) and over the new year.
- Another way
- By car, the museum is about 15 minutes from Akita-Kita interchange on the Akita Expressway, and it has its own car park. It can also be reached on foot from Port Tower Selion at Michi-no-Eki Akita Port.
- After you get off
- Leave Tsuchizaki Station on its west side and walk straight west along the road ahead; the shrine is on your left. Keep going to reach Honcho-dori. The museum is about a 10-minute walk from the station.