Omigawa Gion Festival

According to records, the Omigawa Gion Festival is said to have started in 1639.

It is an annual festival of Suwa Shrine and is based on Tsukushima Shrine’s Gion Festival in Aichi Prefecture.

This festival is characteristic for its transferal of the sacred object from its place of enshrinement to the portable shrine, accompanied by the pulling of festival floats. There are six floats, each with beautiful carvings and colors. Omigawa, which prospered as the Uchida Clan’s castle town and as a river port for water transport on the Tone River at the time, incorporated various aspects of the sophisticated Edo (present-day Tokyo) culture into its own culture, including these two-story floats. Festival music is performed on the first floor of the float and the second floor serves as an entertainment stage, in which entertainers demonstrate their traditional art performances.

Town area in front of JR Omigawa Station (around Suwa Shrine)

• 5 min walk from JR Omigawa Station

• 20 min from Sawara-Katori IC on the Higashi-Kanto Expressway

Free

Paper lanterns with wishes from the local children written on them are hung over the Kurobe River and lit up.

0478-50-1212

0478-72-3307