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Kanto, the climax of summer in Akita lights
up the night
 [A national important intangible folk cultural
heritage] 3-6,August
Kanto Festival, the biggest festival of the
Summer in Akita Prefecture, is also known
as the one of the four biggest summer festivals
in Tohoku (northeastern) area. Every year,
it is expected to have 1.1 million people
come and watch the performances of lanterns
like big ears of rice.
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Festival music, hand clapping, cheerful chatting
and laughing.
Lantern lightsin the shape of ears of rice
in the summer night.
The history of the Kanto Festival
 The Kanto Festival (a national important
intangible folk culturalheritage) originates
from the Horyaku period (1751-63). It was
the ceremony ofprayer for good harvests and
purification and is connected with the oldceremony
of Neburinasgahi, in which people purified
and protected themselves from evil spirits.
Since then, people in the Kubota castle town
of Akita clancarried on the event. It was
named "Kanto" in 1881 (Meiji 14).
It comes fromthe biography about the visit
of the Meiji Emperor. The Kanto festival
hasbeen the event that expresses the culture
and customs of the local people ofthe Akita
clan for about 250 years. Nowadays lots of
people visit Akita fromeverywhere, even abroad,
to enjoy this summer festival of Akita.
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Summer festivals supported by skill
Oowaka of Kanto (a long bamboo pole) weighs
about 50 kg. It takes a quite long time to
gain the skill of balancing it on your shoulders,
hips or hands performance need match experience
and must practice every day. Competitions
have been held since 1931 (Showa 6). People
who are proud of their own skills participate
from each area. After a hard audition, a
few people are chosen as particularly skillful
performers. |
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Kanto Festival is fun even in daytime
In the evening the Kanto are beautiful and
impressive. However it is worth seeing a
competitive performance or group practice
in daytime if you want to see the art clearly.
Also, there are some opportunities for the
public to try balancing Kanto, and even popular
lessons for children to learn how to carry
small Kanto called 'kowaka' and 'youwaka'. |
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