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Katakai Fireworks

Niigata · Fireworks festival

A town of a few thousand people fires one of the largest firework shells made, on two nights in September.

Dates

10 to 11 September 2027

Provisional, not yet confirmed by the organizers

The second Saturday of September and the Friday before it, which is the standing rule. The association confirms the date nearer the time.

Held on the second Saturday of September and the Friday before it.

Dates checked against the official site on September 03, 2026

Katakai is a district of Ojiya with a few thousand residents, and every shell fired here was paid for by one of them. The fireworks are an offering to Asahara Shrine, bought by families to mark a birth, a wedding, a sixtieth birthday or a death, and the reason is read out over the loudspeakers before each one goes up. Both nights run from 19:30 to around 22:20, about fifteen thousand shells across the two. The one people travel for is the yon-shaku-dama, a shell roughly 120 centimetres across that opens some 800 metres wide over the hills. The association calls it the world's largest, and Katakai is the only place that sends one up every year. The town also holds the oldest record of a three-shaku-dama, four of them in 1891. The dates sat on 9 and 10 September for generations; since 2024 they follow the second Saturday of the month and the Friday before it.

Getting a good spot

Katakai has no station of its own. Most people come by taxi or shuttle bus from Ojiya on the Joetsu Line, or from Nagaoka on the shinkansen, and the queue out after the last shell is long. Rooms in the town are gone months ahead, so Nagaoka is the practical base.

Where it happens

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Access

Common questions

When is the Katakai festival?

On the second Saturday of September and the Friday before it. In 2026 that was 11 and 12 September, with fireworks from 19:30 on both nights.

What is the yon-shaku-dama?

A shell about 120 centimetres across that opens roughly 800 metres wide. The association calls it the world's largest, and Katakai sends one up on each of the two nights.