NAGAHAMA HIKIYAMA MATSURI (Float Festival)
This festival is one of the Three Great Float Festivals of Japan, having a long tradition and history of over 400 years. Floats gorgeously decorated by long line of skilled craftsmen are referred to as “moving museum” which include Miokuri Maku, a hanging curtain stretched on rear side of a float, designated as an important cultural property. The highlight of the Festival is “Kodomo (Childrens) Kabuki” which continues from days of Edo Period. Boy actors, aging from 5 to 12 years old, are wearing flamboyant costumes to enthusiastically perform kabuki plays on the float as their stage, just like in the old days.
| Date | April 13 ~ 16 |
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| Venue | Nagahama Hachimangu (shrine), Nagahama City area |
NAGAHAMA & KITA BIWAKO (Northern Lake BIWA) Great Fireworks Festival
This fireworks festival is held on August every year and it has become tradition of the summer season. Over 10,000 starmine and other types of fireworks are fired off continuously. These overwhelming fireworks have made this festival one of the popular firework festivals in Japan. Since fireworks in Nagahama are set off at the lakeside of Lake Biwa, fireworks not only decorate the night sky but are reflected on the water surface of the Lake as a mirror creating translunar and rhapsodical vision. Kunitomo-cho, Nagahama City, was a noted manufacturing site of firearms and has been manufacturing fireworks since Edo Period.
| Date | August 6 |
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| Venue | Nagahama Port area |
NAGAHAMA SHUSSE MATSURI
This festival has started in 1983 commemorating the reconstruction of Nagahama jyo (Nagahama castle) for 400 years. This castle is known as the beginning of the great success achieved by Hideyoshi Toyotomi during his lifetime.
Today, this festival became a major event of autumn in Nagahama. The festival includes various events, such as “Great Kimono Garden Party of Nagahama”, “Art in Nagahama”, etc. where many people are enjoying these events every year.
Art in Nagahama
Artists from various fields are gathering from all over Japan to exhibit, demonstrate, and sell their works in various spots in the City. In other words, this event is an open air market for artists.
HOUKOU MATSURI (Houkou festival)
Houkoku Jinja (Houkoku Jinja shrine) is a shrine dedicated to Houkoku Daimyojin (Hideyoshi Toyotomi).
Houkoku Matsuri is a festival of this Houkoku Jinja where Musha Gyoretsu (parade of Samurai) and Chigo Gyoretsu (parade of children in kimono) are held.
| Date | middle of October |
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| Venue | Nagahama City area |
Great Kimono Garden Party of Nagahama
This is the largest event of kimono (Japanese Traditional Costume). Over 1000 women wearing kimono gathered from all over Japan leisurely stroll around the town of Nagahama.
Kimono matches very well with the traditional cityscape and this is the most brilliant day in Nagahama.
| Date | middle of October |
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| Venue | Nagahama City area |
NAGAHAMA HINAWA JYU TAIKAI (harquebus fair)
Kunitomo in Nagahama City was one of the big three manufacturing sites of firearms during Sengoku Jidai (the Age of Provincial Wars). For this reason, Nagahama is a friendship city of Iriomote City of Tanegashima, an island where guns were introduced to Japan for the first time. In order to deepen mutual friendship, a joint demonstration of harquebus shooting is conducted by troops of harquebus from these two cities.
| Date | middle of October |
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| Venue | Open space in front of Nagahama Castle |
NAGAHAMA KIMONO DAIGAKU (Nagahama Kimono university)
In this event, all people, regardless of their age and sex, can enjoy wearing kimono. Lecturers from Nagahama and all over Japan give presentations on various cultural aspects of kimono in casual settings in a community college atmosphere.
| Date | middle of November |
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| Venue | Nagahama City Area |
NAGAHAMA BONBAI TEN (Bonbai exhibition)
Bonbai is a Japanese apricot tree in bonsai style.
This exhibition started from 1952 when the late Shichizo Takayama donated his bonbai to Nagahama City. Early spring comes with this exhibition. A 400 year old tree or 3 meter tall tree is among the exhibits and this exhibition has been referred as the No. 1 Bonbai exhibition, historically and scale wise.
| Exhibition duration | January 20 ~ March 10 |
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| Venue | KEIUN KAN 2-5, Minato-chi Nagahama-shi Tel: 0749-62-4111 (Tourism Promotion Sec., Nagahama City Hall) |
| Open | 9:00 ~ 17:00 (entrance allowed until 16:30) |
| Closed | Not closed during exhibition |
| Entrance fee | ￥500/adult , ￥200/secondary & primary school students |