Top 10 Cultural Events in Kinki, Japan

The Arashiyama Hanatouro "light up" is a visually stunning festival held in the chill of December. Spotlights and lanterns are set out to illuminate Arashiyama's Togetsukyo Bridge, and the foothills of the surrounding mountains. The enchanted glow is especially dreamy at the local temples and in the bamboo forest, where pathways lined with tall, looming stalks of bamboo are highlighted in an orange haze. The town celebrates by staying open late, and many stores sell local food and goods to visitors.

The Gion Matsuri is Japan's most famous festival, with its origins reaching back all the way to 869. Spanning the whole month of July, it is studded with benchmark events. The most breathtaking of these is the Yamaboko Junko on July 17th, which sees a procession of 80-foot tall wheeled floats paraded throughout the city. The event is repeated on a smaller scale on the 24th. Yoiyama evening celebrations leading up to the parade close off the main streets to automotive traffic and fill them instead with food, drink, and game stalls. Visitors earlier in the month are welcome to watch the massive floats being assembled by hand for the celebration.

Higashiyama Hanatouro is one of Kyoto's most anticipated and celebrated local festivals. Over 2,500 bamboo lanterns light the walking path leading to the foothills of beautiful Higashiyama Mountain by nightfall, illuminating the pathways, temples, and parkland in their wake. Visitors carry flowers and paper lanterns, a stroll leisurely, taking in the enchanting glow, and large, fantastical displays of ikebana flowers are specially constructed to delight viewers. Special events take place throughout, with evenings featuring geisha dancing at the local temples, and school children playing drums and singing songs. The illumination takes place nightly during the festival, between 6:00-9:30pm.

Called Daimonji by locals, the Gozan no Okuribi celebrates the end of the August Obon festival. Five massive bonfires alight around the outskirts of the city, each pyre built upon a separate mountain face. Their burning represents the return of ancestral spirits, thought to visit their families during the Obon, back to the afterlife-- like smoke rising. The bonfires are each distinctive, one in the shape of the character for 'great', another in the shape of a shrine gate, yet another taking the form of a boat. They burn brightly and can be spotted from miles away.

Popularly known as "Sakuyosa," the "Kyoto Sakura Yosakoi" is a festival created mainly by the students of Kyoto. Since it started in 2005 the number of participants has grown, and it is now the largest yosakoi festival in Kansai. At venues that include the famous sightseeing parks, shrines and temples across the city, more than 150 teams each perform their own interpretive style of the yosakoi dance. There are also many ways for viewers to enjoy the festival, such as a yosakoi experience, the "1-hour So-odori" when the dancers and audience members become one, photo contests, stamp rallies, and the sale of original goods.

"Okera-sai" is a ritual that takes place early in the morning on New Year's Day at Yasaka Shrine in Higashiyama Ward, Kyoto. On the night of New Year's Eve, the holy flame lit on December 28th in accordance with an ancient rite is taken from the main shrine building and used to light the "Okera Lanterns" set up within the grounds of the shrine. This flame is transferred to a match cord made of bamboo and, twirling it round and round to keep the flame from going out, it is taken home, and this is known as "okera-mairi." Once taken home the flame is used to light the family altar and to start cooking the zoni (traditional dishes) eaten to celebrate the New Year. The remaining match cord is hung in the kitchen as protection from fire. In the "okerasai" ritual that takes place from 5am on New Year's Day, okera medicinal herbs (Atractylodes rhizome) mixed with kezurikake (decorative reed-shaped twigs) are set alight to ward off evil spirits and thrown onto the paving stones in front of the main shrine building. In this traditional Kyoto event, we pray for peace during the coming year.

A festival of light, which has been held in December every year since 1995 as a memorial and requiem of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, and to pray for recovery of the town. Geometric illuminations decorate the squares and streets, and during the festival a corridor of light called the Galleria runs through Nakamachi-dori street. In its heyday the festival attracted more than 5 million visitors but in recent years, due to energy-saving policies and a shortened festival period, it draws between 3 and 3.5 Million.

The first festival of Ebisu, it takes place around January 10th and is intended to pray for prosperity in business. In the case of Imamiya Ebisu Shrine in Osaka it is held on January 9th to 11th, and is famous for the lucky charm known as Fukuzasa. The small charms you attach to the Fukuzasa are also known as kiccho and include koban coins, sea bream, straw rice bags, eboshi (headgear worn by nobles), and mallets. Also drawing big crowds is the "Hoekago Parade," in which geishas and famous entertainers ride in "hoekago" (palanquins) along with the shout of "Hoekago-hoekago, Eraiyatcha-eraiyatcha."

The festival floats and drum floats used as an offering in festivals are called danjiri in western Japan, and "Danjiri Matsuri" is a collective term for festivals that use them. Particularly famous is the Kishiwada Danjiri Matsuri, in which danjiri, some weighing up to 4 tons, are decorated with carvings, paper lanterns, and banners and vigorously hauled through the streets. It is known as a boisterous festival, but the intensity and flamboyance captivate tourists. In the old days, it was held during the eighth month of the traditional Japanese calendar, but since 2006, it has been held on the Saturday and Sunday before Respect for the Aged Day (the third Monday in September).

The Nada Kenka Matsuri (Open Sea Brawl Festival) is an annual grand fall festival held October 14-15 at Matsubara Hachiman Shrine in the neighborhood of Shirahama in Himeji. As the name implies, the festival is a boisterous event that mixes participants with spectators, including a Shinto ritual with 3 mikoshi (portable shrines) smashing into each other and a float battle that involves intricately decorated floats from each town mashing together. When night falls, the floats are illuminated with electric and fire lanterns, creating a bright and lively atmosphere. The festival is designated an Important Intangible Cultural Property of Gunma prefecture.