Region 02
TOHOKU
Tohoku
Northern festivals where light and prayer crowd into a short summer.
Aomori · Iwate · Miyagi · Akita · Yamagata · Fukushima
Aomori
Aomori Nebuta Festival
Illuminated lantern floats depicting heroic figures move through Aomori's summer nights to flute and drum, surrounded by haneto dancers calling out "Rassera." The tradition is designated a national Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property as "Aomori no Nebuta."
Typically: Annually, August 2–7
Aomori
Hirosaki Neputa Festival
A summer procession in the castle town of Hirosaki, led mainly by fan-shaped ogi-neputa painted with warrior scenes and accompanied by flute, drum and the call "Yaa-ya-do."
Typically: Annually, August 1–7
Miyagi
Sendai Tanabata Festival
A Tanabata observance said to have been handed down since the time of Date Masamune, founder of the Sendai domain, when bamboo decorations of washi streamers fill the city's shopping arcades.
Typically: Annually, August 6–8
Akita
Akita Kanto Festival
Akita's summer observance in which performers balance towering bamboo poles hung with lanterns on their palms, foreheads, shoulders and hips; the whole pole is likened to an ear of rice, in prayer for an abundant harvest.
Typically: Annually, August 3–6
- Licensed photography is being verified
Yamagata
Yamagata Hanagasa Festival
A summer festival in which dancers holding safflower-decorated hanagasa hats move in formation through central Yamagata to the beat of hanagasa drums and the call "Yassho, makasho."
Typically: Annually, August 5–7
- Licensed photography is being verified
Akita
Yokote Kamakura Snow Festival
A Little New Year (koshōgatsu) observance in Yokote in which the water deity is enshrined at the back of snow chambers called kamakura; it is said to have a history of about 450 years.
Typically: Since 2026, the second Friday and Saturday of February
- Licensed photography is being verified
Aomori
Hirosaki Cherry Blossom Festival
A spring festival at Hirosaki Park, where cherry trees of more than fifty varieties bloom against the moats and stone walls of Hirosaki Castle; it began as the "Kan'ōkai" cherry-viewing gathering of 1918.
Akita
Omagari Fireworks – National Fireworks Competition
A fireworks competition dating from 1910 in which pyrotechnicians from across Japan compete. It features a daytime fireworks category as well as night fireworks, and the top award is the Prime Minister's Prize.
Typically: The last Saturday of August