Colossal Hikiyama Floats Parade Around a Castle Town

One of the big three kunchi (autumn) festivals in Japan, the Karatsu Kunchi Festival takes over the entire northern Kyūshū town of Karatsu for a three-day period, from 2-4 November each year.

The three-day festival opens on the evening of 2 November with Yoiyama, an event where the floats, measuring over seven metres in height and each weighing between two and five tons, are festooned with lanterns and paraded through the town, finally assembling at Karatsu Shrine. The autumn breeze carries the echoing cries of Enya! Enya! or Oisa! Oisa!, chanted in time to the accompanying music of flutes, drums and gongs. The fourteen majestically splendid floats, depicting shishi (mythical lions), sea creatures, dragons, legendary characters and fearsome samurai helmets and masks, look as if they stepped straight from the pages of an old Japanese folk tale.

The highlight of the next day, 3 November, is Otabishō-Shinko. The floats are paraded to Nishi-no-Hama Beach, then, in a powerful show of strength, hauled along the sandy beach towards the otabishō, their temporary resting place.

The toughest part of the procession is in the sandy ground a kilometre from the shrine, where the wheels of the floats get stuck. As the young men hauling the floats work in unison to pull the floats towards their goal, the festival heads towards its climax. Then, on the final day, 4 November, accompanied by shouts of machi mawari (‘Around the town!’), the floats visit the various neighbourhoods before heading to the finale.
The thrilling sight of several hundred dashing happi-clad young men, pulling these colossal, richly coloured floats is overwhelming. The entire scene looks like something from an ancient illustrated scroll.