Lantern Festival of Kuki

Overview

The Kuki Lantern Festival, known as "Tenno-sama," is the festival of Yakumo Shrine, the tutelary shrine of the former town of Kuki, held in Kuki City, Saitama Prefecture. A traditional summer festival boasting around 240 years of history, it is held over two days each year, on July 12 and 18. The greatest characteristic of this festival is that the appearance of the floats changes completely between day and night. During the day, gorgeous doll floats adorned with finely crafted figures parade through the town, and at night the dolls are removed and the floats are reassembled into lantern floats covered with as many as about 500 lanterns each. The sight of seven floats lit with countless lanterns making their way through the darkness of night is truly fantastical, and the festival is widely known as one of the leading lantern festivals of the Kanto region.

Being able to experience two different expressions of the festival, by day and by night, within a single day is a composition rarely seen elsewhere, and this is the great appeal of the Kuki Lantern Festival. The same floats show a refined form with dolls as the stars by day, and transform into a fantastical figure wrapped in lantern light by night. Visitors are captivated by this vivid contrast throughout the day. While its origins lie in people's earnest prayers for recovery from disaster and the warding off of epidemics, today it is deeply rooted in the community as a tradition of summer.

History and Origins

The origins of the festival date back to 1783 (Tenmei 3). In that year, a great eruption of Mount Asama occurred, and a huge amount of volcanic ash fell over a wide area. In Kuki as well, the region suffered tremendous damage, with summer crops including mulberry covered in ash and destroyed. In an effort to somehow recover from this unprecedented calamity, people borrowed a festival float from Honcho and pulled it around the town, and this is said to be the beginning of the lantern festival. The very origin, in which people pulled the float to rouse a devastated region once more and to embody their wish for recovery, expresses the spirit of this festival.

This festival is also that of Yakumo Shrine, the tutelary shrine of the former town of Kuki, and is said to derive from a summer festival praying for the warding off of epidemics and misfortune, dedicated to the Gozu Tenno shrine once enshrined in the precincts of Tennoin. Gozu Tenno has long been widely worshipped as a god who wards off epidemics and has been the center of summer festivals called "Tenno-sama" in various places. Summer is a season in which epidemics easily spread, and people sought to ward off calamity and pass safely through the summer by praying to Gozu Tenno. The Kuki festival, too, can be said to be a tradition nurtured against the background of people's twin earnest wishes: recovery from natural disaster and the warding off of epidemics. About 240 years from its origin in Tenmei 3, it has been carefully handed down across generations by local people and continues unbroken to this day.

Highlights

The greatest highlight lies entirely in the way the floats change completely between day and night. During the day, gorgeous doll floats, raising high dolls based on historical figures and famous scenes from stories, parade through the town. The finely crafted dolls are themselves impressive works of craftsmanship, delighting onlookers along the route as the stars of the daytime festival.

Then, as the sun begins to set, the town suddenly grows busy. People remove the dolls from the floats and set about, all together, the work of attaching a great number of lanterns instead. As many as about 500 lanterns per float are attached one after another, and eventually each float transforms into a lantern float entirely wrapped in lantern light. This very work of reassembly from day to night has become one of the festival's highlights.

In the evening, the floats lit with countless lanterns parade through the town, and the rows of lanterns emerging from the darkness fill the route. The nighttime scene, woven from countless flickering lights and the energy of the people pulling the floats, is spectacular, spreading a world full of heat and fantasy entirely different from the orderly beauty of the daytime doll floats. Being able to savor two contrasting expressions, day and night, within a single day is precisely the delight unique to this festival, and it is deeply etched into the hearts of visitors.

Access and Visiting Information

The Kuki Lantern Festival, Tenno-sama, is held on July 12 and 18 each year in Kuki City, Saitama Prefecture. As the festival of Yakumo Shrine, the central market district of the former town of Kuki becomes the festival stage, and over two days doll floats and lantern floats parade through the town. Because the highlight times for the daytime doll floats and the nighttime lantern floats are clearly divided, those who wish to fully enjoy both are recommended to stay from daytime into the night and witness the day-to-night transformation.

For access, Kuki Station, served by the JR Utsunomiya Line and the Tobu Isesaki Line, serves as the gateway, making it convenient to visit from various directions in the Tokyo metropolitan area. On festival days, traffic restrictions are in place in the central market district, and it bustles with many spectators, so visiting by public transportation rather than private car is recommended.

Nearby Attractions

Kuki City is located in the eastern part of Saitama Prefecture, a town where the rich farmland of the Kanto Plain coexists with a historic urban district. Strolling through the streetscape that retains traces of the former town of Kuki, starting with Yakumo Shrine at the heart of the festival, you can feel the history of faith and daily life rooted in this place. Historic shrines such as Washinomiya Shrine, also known as the setting of anime, are scattered in the surroundings, and combined with the lantern festival, you can plan an itinerary that touches on the region's faith and culture. Savoring the heat of the summer festival and then spending contrasting, quiet time touring serene shrines and temples is another pleasure.

Related Information

The Kuki Lantern Festival, Tenno-sama, has had its traditional value recognized and is designated a cultural property of the city as the "Float Event of Kuki Yakumo Shrine," making it a precious tradition that conveys the region's history and faith to the present. Its origins, beginning as a wish for recovery from the great disaster of the Mount Asama eruption in Tenmei 3 and developing in deep connection with the faith in Gozu Tenno for warding off epidemics and misfortune, reflect the very prayers of people who, while facing the hardships of natural disaster and epidemic, sought nonetheless to protect and rebuild their lives. Together with its unique form of vivid transformation from daytime doll floats to nighttime lantern floats, the Kuki Lantern Festival, Tenno-sama, as a summer festival with around 240 years of history, will continue to color the region's summers warmly for years to come.

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