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.

What you actually see

• 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.

Honest expectations

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.