Kawagoe Hikawa Matsuri Festival and its Dashi Float Festival
The third Saturday and Sunday of October, Kawagoe (Saitama prefecture)
This is held in the annual festival of Hikawa shrine in Kawagoe, and neighboring towns bring their floats for the parade. During the festival, Kawagoe shrine sets small praying spots for parishioners and floats in each town.
The float is categorized as Edo-type of float, which consists of a two-tiered house on a cart and a big puppet on one pillar piercing the house. Traditional music and Kagura dance are also played on the floats.
On the first day of the festival, floats parade around towns and visit the shrine. They also parade on the second day.
Like this Dashi float parade, the festival with Yama, Hoko, and Yatai float were inherited and developed in different ways in all over Japan.
This ritual in Kawagoe was developed under the influence of Kanda Matsuri Festival in Edo (Tokyo), which was also called “Sanno Matsuri Festival”, so it inherits Edo-type floats and performers riding on the floats.
It is an important festival to understand the development of city rituals in this country, and also from the perspective of comparing to other float festivals, it is crucial.
- Organizer:
- Kawagoe Matsuri Kyosan-kai
- Contact Details
- 〒350-0062
- Kawagoe Motomachi 2-1-10
- Kawagoe Matsuri Kaikan
- TEL：049-225-2727
- Website
- Kawagoe Matsuri
- https://kawagoematsuri.jp/
