Kishiwada Danjiri Matsuri
With a history dating back over 300 years, the Kishiwada Danjiri Matsuri is one of Japan’s largest, oldest and most popular danjiri festivals, often drawing huge 400,000-strong crowds. It’s held twice a year – in September and October – in Kishiwada city in southern Osaka prefecture.
As its name suggests, the festival revolves around the danjiri: massive wooden floats adorned with intricate carvings and housing miniature shrines, reaching up to four metres tall and weighing as much as three tons. What makes them so captivating to watch is the speed at which they’re hauled through the streets by hundreds of men, spurred on by thumping drum beats and guided by dancers balancing atop the floats. The sharp, high-speed corner turns are especially skillful and dramatic, so be sure to catch these yarimawashi maneuvers.
This year, the festivities will take place on September 13 and 14 (and again on October 11–12). On Saturday, the float parade starts at 6am, and the next day at 9am. It pays to come early, as this is when the floats are moving at their fastest, since the streets are less congested.
You can take in the spectacle for free from anywhere in the city, but one popular spot is outside Kispa LaPark, where you can dip in and out of the air-conditioned department store. In the old town, where the roads are narrower (especially along Kishu Kaido Street), the floats appear to be moving faster, and the atmospheric setting will remind you of Japan’s nostalgic Edo period...