Akita Kanto Festival

The kanto is a bamboo pole about twelve metres long carrying nine crossbars hung with forty-six paper lanterns, each lit by a candle, weighing around fifty kilograms in total. Bearers raise one and balance it - on the palm, then transferred to the forehead, the shoulder, the hip and the small of the back - while it bends and sways, adding extension poles to make it taller, with flute and drum keeping time and a crowd of a couple of hundred poles working the street at once. The ears of rice the lanterns represent make the purpose explicit: it is a harvest prayer, held in early August around Tanabata, recorded from the eighteenth century and registered as an important intangible folk cultural property. Poles fall regularly. It runs 3 to 6 August, and afterwards bearers bring poles down to the crowd so people can try lifting one.

History

The festival grew out of Neburi Nagashi, a summer rite for driving away illness and ill will that already existed in the Hōreki period, 1751 to 1764, and was also a prayer for good harvests. The oldest description of it is in Yuki no furu michi, written by Soan Tsumura in 1789, and the poles of candles and lanterns carried in the rite came to be called kanto (Wikipedia, Akita Kantō).

What to look for

• Fifty-kilogram poles - twelve metres, forty-six candle lanterns, balanced on one point.
• Five balance positions - palm, forehead, shoulder, hip and back, transferred while swaying.
• Two hundred poles at once - the whole street working together to flute and drum.
• A harvest prayer - the lanterns standing for ears of rice.

When to go

3 to 6 August, in the evening. An evening; book seats and accommodation far ahead.

Before you go

Accommodation in Akita sells out months in advance for these dates. Free standing views are distant and crowded; grandstand seats must be bought early. Poles do fall into the crowd. Rain and wind cut the display short.

Nearby

Kakunodate is east; the Oga peninsula is west.

Key facts