Karatsu Kunchi

Kunchi is the autumn festival of Karatsu Shrine, and its centre is the fourteen hikiyama, floats owned by fourteen neighbourhoods of the old castle town. The oldest is the red lion of Katana-machi, finished in 1819; the others followed one by one until 1876. They are built in the ikkanbari method, paper layered over a frame and lacquered, and take the shape of lions, the helmets of Minamoto no Yoshitsune, Takeda Shingen and Uesugi Kenshin, a sea bream, a flying dragon, a turtle carrying Urashima Taro and two ships. Each weighs two to three tonnes, and the heaviest, the Hoo-maru and the Shippo-maru, are three. The festival runs over three days. On the evening of 2 November, the Yoi-hikiyama, the floats are lit up and pulled to the front of the shrine: six leave from Otemon-guchi and the other eight join them on the way. On 3 November they follow the shrine's portable shrine to the Otabisho, its resting place at Nishinohama. Hauling the floats into the ground there (from noon in 2026) and out again (from 15:00) is the part most people come to see. On 4 November the floats go round about 8 km of the old town without the portable shrine, gather on Komeyamachi street around midday, and in the evening are put away one at a time in the float exhibition hall. The festival is a national Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property, and in 2016 UNESCO listed it as one of the 33 Yama, Hoko, Yatai float festivals of Japan. The local dish for the days is ara, a large grouper simmered whole for about a day, served to guests who are invited into homes.