Inuyama Festival

The Inuyama Festival is a festival of Haritsuna Shrine held every April in Inuyama, Aichi Prefecture. Said to have begun in 1635, it is a spring celebration boasting around 400 years of history. Against the backdrop of Inuyama Castle, a National Treasure, splendid and ornate floats parade through the castle town, making it one of the foremost float festivals of the Tōkai region.

The stars of the festival are the thirteen magnificent three-tiered floats known as "yama." Atop each is mounted a mechanical puppet, and the neighborhoods compete in dedicating their intricate puppet performances. The sight of the puppets dancing, writing characters, and transforming through threads and mechanisms astonishes onlookers, conveying the height of craftsmanship continued since the Edo period. At night, each float is lit with as many as 365 lanterns, and the dreamlike scene of the "night floats" (yoyama) emerging from the darkness crowns the festival's climax.

The Inuyama Festival developed against the backdrop of the spirit and wealth of the townspeople of the castle town of Inuyama. The procession of floats advancing beneath cherry blossoms in full bloom, lanterns swaying, is truly a picture-scroll of spring. It was designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property of Japan in 2006, and in 2016 registered as part of the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage "Yama, Hoko, Yatai float festivals in Japan." Unfolding in a castle town on the banks of the Kiso River beneath a National Treasure keep, this festival is a brilliant celebration representing spring in the Owari region.