Yamagata Hanagasa Festival Tours and Travel

Yay! Yay!
Waves of safflowers swaying in the wind

The highlights of the Yamagata Hanagasa Festival, one of the three major folk festivals in Japan, are the spirited shouts and the heroic sounds of the Hanagasa drums. The gorgeously decorated floats are at the front, and dancers in gorgeous costumes and with flower-decorated hats perform a group dance.

There are various theories about the origin of the "Hanagasa Ondo" song sung at the Hanagasa Festival, but it is said to have originated from the "Tsuchitsuki Uta" song, which was sung to keep the rhythm during civil engineering work in Obanazawa in the mid-Taisho period.
In the early Showa period, this became a folk song and was named "Hanagasa Ondo."
As for the dance, it is said to have originated from a hat woven from reeds and dyed red paper with flower decorations attached, which was waved and swung around to cheer people up.

The festival begins with a gorgeously decorated Zao Daigongen float at the front, followed by brave shouts of "Yatsusho, makasho!" and the sound of flower-hasa drums echoing loudly into the midsummer night.
More than 10,000 dancers in gorgeous costumes perform dynamic, energetic dances, while waves of hats decorated with safflower, the flower of Yamagata, swell and bloom.