Joso Kinugawa Fireworks

Joso runs its fireworks as a competition. Firms come from around the country with shells built for judging rather than for filling the sky, so the programme moves in single set pieces with pauses between them, and the crowd watches the way a crowd watches a scored event. The 2026 edition was the 59th and the largest the city had put on, about 22,000 shells over the Kinugawa from the riverbank at Hashimoto Sports Park, from 18:05 to 19:50. The setting is flat farmland, which means the river is the only thing between the launch site and the seats, and sound arrives with almost no delay. Paid seating sells out through the summer; the free banks fill from mid-afternoon.