Japan KYUSHU Tourist　　ジャパン九州ツーリスト株式会社

We are the specialist’s for travel and tours in Kyushu, Japan
warmly welcoming customers from all over the world.

九州を旅行する日本人をはじめとする、世界中の人たちの旅行会社です

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Yanagawa Sagemon Festival

 

Yanagawa Sagemon Festival is one of the most beautiful and very unique Japanese

traditional Festival in Kyushu.  The festival is held from February 11 through April 3 in

Yanagawa.  Hina dolls are displayed by families with girls to pray for safe growth of 

their children, in Yanagawa, in addition to Hina dolls, colourful “Sagemon” are displayed.
Sagemon Meguri was started in order to showcase beautiful “Sagemon” to visitors. 
Each display of “ Sagemon” represents parents’ wishes for their girls to grow into
beautiful, strong, and proud women.

Kyokusui-no-en at Dazaifu Shrine

 

The festival is held on the first Sunday of March. Kyokusui-no-en is a Japanese traditional
ceremony held at Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine on the first Sunday of March, a purification
ceremony on a winding stream, is performed by ladies and gentlemen in a ceremonial court
robe under the plum blossoms in full-bloom. 
After the Tobiume-no-mai dance by shrine maidens, Kyokusui-no-En Festival begins.
Vermilion-lacquered cups full of sake are set afloat down the stream.

Before the cups reach each of the participants sitting along the stream, they have to

make up a Japanese poem called waka, and write it down on a strip of fancy paper.
When the cups reach the participants, they drink the sake and hand the paper strip and
cup over to an attendant.

The ceremony has its origin in a historical fact that Ono-no-Yoshifuru, an elder brother of a

noted-calligrapher Ono-no-Tofu, held a ceremony to appease the soul of Michizane

Sugawara and to beguile tedious hours in a rural life.

Tobata Gion Yamagasa, in Kitakyushu-city

 

Float Festivals including Tobata Gion Yamagasa inscribed on UNESCO Intangible
Heritage List in 2016.
The festival has a lot of energy and is very dynamic as is the case with festivals such
as the Hakata Gion Yamagasa，with young men wearing the happi (festival costume)
and hachimaki (head band)， carrying the Yamagasa (festival float) and walking 
around the town shouting  “yoitosa yoitosa”. 

What is remarkable is the way the character of the Yamagasa changes from daytime，

with the Nobori Yamagasa (festival floats with flags); to nighttime with the Chochin
Yamagasa ( festival floats with lanterns).
The highlight is the Chochin Yamagasa Contest held in Tobata Ward Office on Saturday
night. The Nobori Yamagasa used during the daytime is dismantled, and the 10 metre-high 
Chochin Yamagasa，with its 309 lanterns arranged in 12 tiers, is assembled and carried
along in a race by dozens of young people crying  “yoitosa yoitosa”.

Kokura Gion Daiko, in Kitakyushu-city

 

Kokura Gion Daiko is a summer festivals in which the main attraction is the playing the drums.

In 1958 the event was designated as an intangible folk cultural asset of Fukuoka prefecture.
On July 1st the Kokura Gion Taiko Uchizome-shiki (the ceremony to inaugurate Taiko practice

sessions) is held，and from that moment，Kokura’s exciting summer begins，

with each town and company group striving to perfect its own Taiko performance ahead of the 

Festival which is held from Friday of the third weel in July.

A prominent feature of the festival are the dashi (decorated cart) parades through the town，

carrying two drums，one at the front of the cart and one at the rear，with four drummers

beating the Taiko in time to gongs called jangara, and reciting the phrase Yassa Yare Yare. 

The highlights of the Festival which you should not miss are the Taiko Performing Contest

held at Kokura Castle on July 16th; and the Taiko Performing Parade held at Komonji-dori

street on Sunday of the third week in July.

Nagasaki Lantern Festival

 

An annual festival in Nagasaki held on Chinese new year.  The festival has been started to

celebrate a new year by Chinese who lived in Nagasaki, and it became the Nagasaki’s festival

since 1994. More than 10 thousand lanterns are decorated at China town during the festival.