Hachinohe Sansha Festival Tour/Travel

Special feature on Japanese festivals and seasonal customs

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Hachinohe Sansha Grand Festival

UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage

Japanese float festival.
A spectacular and gorgeous float procession!

The Hachinohe Sansha Festival is the largest festival in the Hachinohe region, boasting approximately 290 years of history and tradition.

The main feature of the festival is the spectacular "gimmick floats" with dolls rising up and spreading out.
In the past, floats would only carry a single doll, but from the mid-Meiji period, they began to change into floats that told stories, and from around the 1970s onwards, floats began to be equipped with gimmicks.
When the floats are unfolded, as if they're being decorated like a bird spreading its wings, or when the dolls on the floats perform movements such as rising, pulling out, and standing up, huge cheers erupt from the crowd along the route.