{"id":4158,"date":"2016-04-13T23:48:20","date_gmt":"2016-04-13T14:48:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/?p=4158"},"modified":"2026-03-27T12:30:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T03:30:00","slug":"nagahama-hikiyama-matsuri-festival-schedule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/2016\/04\/nagahama-hikiyama-matsuri-festival-schedule\/","title":{"rendered":"Nagahama Hikiyama Matsuri Festival Schedule"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3zYuarHUHXs?rel=0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Updated:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/2026\/03\/nagahama-hikiyama-matsuri-2026-festival-schedule\/\">Click here for the 2026 Nagahama\u00a0Hikiyama Matsuri Festival Schedule.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Nagahama&nbsp;Hikiyama Matsuri is a&nbsp;major float festival held in mid-April in Nagahama in northern Shiga Prefecture. The highlight is child kabuki actors performing on four ornate floats. On Dec. 1, 2016 (JST), it&nbsp;was inscribed as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity as one of 33 &#8220;Yama, Hoko, and Yatai float festivals in Japan.&#8221; The festival is held near <a href=\"https:\/\/photoguide.jp\/txt\/Nagahama_Station\">JR Nagahama Station<\/a> on the <a href=\"https:\/\/photoguide.jp\/txt\/Hokuriku_Main_Line\">JR Hokuriku Line<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here is a schedule of major festival events in 2016 (times are approximate):<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>April 13<\/strong><br>\n6:00 p.m. to around 8:30 p.m.: April 13 evening performance of child kabuki plays on four floats in their respective neighborhoods. This is their first public performance in full makeup and costume. In case of rain, certain&nbsp;floats might seek shelter inside the shopping arcade or&nbsp;in the Nagahama Hikiyama Museum&#8217;s extra storehouse for their performances. (\u5341\u4e09\u65e5\u756a)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>April 14<\/strong><br>\n10 a.m. to noon: Morning performance of child kabuki plays on four floats in their respective neighborhoods. (\u81ea\u753a\u72c2\u8a00)<br>\nNoon: The four floats are pulled (and pushed) from their neighborhoods&nbsp;to Nagahama Hachimangu Shrine (<em>Noboriyama<\/em> \u767b\u308a\u5c71).<br>\n4:00 p.m.: The Naginata float arrives at&nbsp;the Otabisho rest place.<br>\n7:00 p.m.: Evening procession&nbsp;of child kabuki actors walking from&nbsp;Nagahama Hachimangu Shrine to Nagahama Hikiyama Museum through Otemon-dori shopping arcade. (<em>Yu-watari<\/em> \u5915\u6e21\u308a)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>April 15<\/strong> (Main day)<br>\n8:30 a.m.: Arrival of child kabuki actors at&nbsp;Nagahama Hachimangu Shrine. (<em>Asa-watari<\/em> \u671d\u6e21\u308a)<br>\n9:20 a.m.: Arrival of sword bearers at&nbsp;Nagahama Hachimangu Shrine. (<em>Tachi-watari<\/em> \u592a\u5200\u6e21\u308a)<br>\n9:35 a.m.: Opening ritual to mark the start of kabuki performances. (<em>Okina-maneki<\/em> \u7fc1\u62db\u304d)<br>\n9:55 a.m.\u201310:40 a.m.:&nbsp;Performance of a child kabuki play on the first of four floats at&nbsp;Nagahama Hachimangu Shrine. 40 min. long. (<em>Hono kyogen<\/em> \u5949\u7d0d\u72c2\u8a00)<br>\n11:10&nbsp;a.m.\u201311:50 a.m.:&nbsp;Performance of child kabuki play on the&nbsp;second&nbsp;float at&nbsp;Nagahama Hachimangu Shrine.<br>\n12:20&nbsp;a.m.\u20131:00 p.m.:&nbsp;Performance of child kabuki play on the third&nbsp;float at&nbsp;Nagahama Hachimangu Shrine.<br>\n1:30 p.m.\u20132:10 p.m.:&nbsp;Performance of child kabuki play on the fourth&nbsp;float at&nbsp;Nagahama Hachimangu Shrine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>*The order of the floats&#8217; performances is decided on April 13 via the Kuji-tori ceremony (\u7c64\u53d6\u308a\u5f0f\u306e\u5100) where they draw lots to see which float is No. 1, 2, 3, or 4.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After performing at the shrine, each float will move across town along Otemon-dori road (shopping arcade, Kurokabe Square, etc.) to the Otabisho rest place. Along the way, they will stop and perform kabuki three more times with the last performance at the Otabisho starting at 7:40 p.m. Each&nbsp;float performs the same kabuki play each time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">9:30 p.m.: At the Otabisho rest place after&nbsp;all the floats finish performing, a short Shinto ceremony is held and the portable shrine in&nbsp;the Otabisho is taken out and carried back to&nbsp;Nagahama Hachimangu Shrine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">9:30 p.m.: The four floats start to leave the Otabisho to return to their neighborhoods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>April 16<\/strong><br>\nMorning to evening: After-festival kabuki performances are given by&nbsp;the four floats once each in the morning, afternoon, and evening in their respective neighborhoods in central Nagahama. Each float&#8217;s&nbsp;final performance of the festival is called <em>senshuraku<\/em> (\u5343\u79cb\u697d). Expect to see some tearful kids and parents after the last show is over. (<em>Goen kyogen<\/em> \u5f8c\u5bb4\u72c2\u8a00)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For details in Japanese, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nagahama-hikiyama.or.jp\/image\/news\/178\/178.pdf\">see or download this pdf file<\/a>&nbsp;from the Nagahama Hikiyama Museum. Also see the map below or click on this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps\/d\/viewer?mid=zC2op0OkigxY.kOYqCHvZlLSg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">map link<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps\/d\/embed?mid=zC2op0OkigxY.kOYqCHvZlLSg\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Updated:\u00a0Click here for the 2026 Nagahama\u00a0Hikiyama Matsuri Festival Schedule. The Nagahama&nbsp;Hikiyama Matsuri is a&nbsp;major float festival held in mid-April in Nagahama in northern Shiga Prefecture. The highlight is child kabuki actors performing on four ornate floats. On Dec. 1, 2016&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4166,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spring","category-nagahama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4158"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10417,"href":"https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4158\/revisions\/10417"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}