Japanese festivals are roughly divided into two kinds. Traditionally-held festivals are that in which Shinto deities and the people communicate through certain rites on specific dates. Formalities vary, for these festivals are mixed with a diversity of folk beliefs, yet they are invariably held in any region in Japan where there is a shrine. Meanwhile, out of traditional festivals in which the regional people all participate to realize a separate space from daily life, mass events for commemoration and celebration, which resemble the form of the traditional festivals, have also become to be called "matsuri." And when a certain number of people gather and create a lively space, that too is called "matsuri", and the a collective state of excitement is called the "state of making a fete of it(o-matsuri sawagi)."
Hokkaido is the farthest north of the four main islands that constitute the Japan Islands. As the center of Hokkaido, Sapporo has been a host city of winter olympics, and is famous for its winter snow festival. Unlike traditional festivals that enshrine Shinto deities, it is a festival of snow sculptures that began after the Second World War. The festival is held in a park on the main avenue in Sapporo every year, attracting hundreds of thousands of spectators including tourists from overseas.
Quite a few people participate in making snow images, varying from large organizations like the Self-Defense Forces to individual citizens. Gigantic images such as castles or monsters are constructed with a large amount of snow carried in from outside the city, taking several weeks, and they are very popular with people.
Summer is short in the northern provinces. The Nebuta Festival, held in the northeastern district of Japan, radiates strong passions during the short summer. Originally started as an event for the Star Festival, it is a parade around the city of nebuta, gigantic multi-colored floats with luminous paper effigies of warriors and at a maximum thousands of people gather around the nebuta and go through the town dancing. As many as sixty nebuta turn out, causing tremendous crowds and incredible heat. The festival takes place from the first to the seventh of August primarily in the cities of Aomori and Hirosaki in northeastern Japan. Since it has made a record of 3,300,000 tourists in recent years, and has participated in festivals abroad, it can be referred to as one of Japan›“ representative festivals.(Note: They call it "neputa" in Hirosaki City)
It is one of the three major festivals of northeastern Japan, together with the Nebuta Festival in Aomori and the Star Festival in Sendai, and is held on August 4-7 in Akita city. The Kanto Festival originated at a time when people believed that "during summer, you are overcome by sleepiness from heat and intense labor and catch a sleep disease"; so, to drive sleepiness away, people set up Japanese cedar trees with lanterns in front of their house gates. Today, those trees have been replaced by kanto; bamboo poles ten meters tall to each of which nine horizontal poles are attached to hang a maximum of forty-six lanterns. They were modeled after the ear of the rice plant, in the hope for a bountiful harvest of crops. As many as one hundred and eighty of these kanto stretch out in a row and fill the town at night.
One of the three major festivals of Tokyo. It is held as a ritual ceremony of the Asakusa Shrine in the middle of May. Festivals of Edo(present-day Tokyo) are mainly designed for scores of people to carry the portable shrine on their shoulders and parade around the area. This Sanja Festival is popular, with scores of the portable shrines from each block association and three big portable shrines energetically parading through the old traditional streets of Asakusa, and hundreds of thousands of spectators gather for it every year. Ancient ritual music and dancing is performed in the precincts of the shrine. The three days of this festival, together with the first temple or shrine visit of the New Year is the time when this town is most enlivened.
Kanda was so popular as a center of a commercial and residential district of Edo(present-day Tokyo), that those born in Kanda were said to be typical Edoites(Edokko). The Kanda Festival is a ritual ceremony that is held at the Kanda Shrine in May. Like other festivals in Tokyo, the procession of the portable shrines is the main event. Edoites are often described as high-spirited and combative, but even among them the Kanda Festival was high-spirited and was even called the essence of Edo. Today, it is not as bustling as it used to be, but it is still one of the three major festivals of Tokyo.
It is famous as one of the three major giant-float festivals as well as the Gion Festival in Kyoto and the Takayama Festival in Hida of Gifu prefecture, and has a history of over three hundred years. It is held on the second and the third of December as a ritual ceremony of the Chichibu Shrine in Saitama Prefecture. Two elaborately ornamented floats and four other floats parade through the town among the mountains at cold night. All of the six floats are lighted up with countless paper lanterns, fireworks are cheerfully set off to color the winter night sky, and the beauty fascinate hundreds of thousands of spectators.
This is a splendid Shinto festival held at Yasaka Shrine in Kyoto on July 17-24. The shrine was originally built to calm an epidemic which was sweeping the city at the beginning of the Heian Period(794-1185). The festival at first was in the form of a ceremony to stamp out the epidemic, featuring scores of standing halberds, each measuring over six meters tall. These halberds were replaced by giant festival floats with decorative halberds and became famous for their gorgeousness, in contrast to the bold and energetic procession of the portable shrines that are the focus of Edo(Tokyo) festivals. These festival floats are built in two stories, featuring on the second floor, festival music played in a lively way with traditional accompaniment instruments. When July comes, practice for this festival music is held in various towns, giving an impression for the people that summer is coming to Kyoto.
This is the festival of Kushida Shrine held in Hakata, Kyushu on May 3-4. "Dontaku" is a corruption of the Dutch word Zondag, meaning Sunday and holiday. Chigo, children disguised as heavenly beings for the festival, start from the shrine on a float, followed by the three deities of good fortune, Ebisu, Daikoku, and Fukurokuju, on horses. Numbers of kasahoko, elaborately ornamented floats, and dashi, decorated gigantic-wheel floats, proceed behind, and the whole parade marches through towns, with chigo performing dances at certain spots. The festival atmosphere is enlivened by cheerfully played music of shamisen and Japanese hand drums. This festival music is said to have started 800 years ago, in order to express gratitude to TAIRA no Shigemori, a feudal lord of the time.