Chichibu Night Festival (Chichibu Yomatsuri)
The Chichibu Night Festival is the winter grand festival of Chichibu Shrine in Saitama, held annually on December 2 and 3 and counted with Kyoto's Gion Matsuri and the Takayama Festival as one of Japan's three great float festivals. Two kasaboko and four yatai floats, storeys high and heavy with carving, gold leaf and lanterns, are pulled through the town by teams of haulers with drum and flute ensembles playing inside them. The climax comes on the main night, when the floats are dragged one by one up the steep Dango-zaka slope in front of the city hall while roughly two hours of fireworks are launched over the winter sky, unusual in a country where fireworks belong to summer. The festival marks the annual meeting of the shrine's goddess with the god of nearby Mount Buko. It was inscribed by UNESCO in 2016. Nights in the Chichibu basin fall close to freezing, and the town fills with several hundred thousand visitors over the two days.
Event information
| When | Usually held in early December; check the official site for the latest schedule |
|---|---|
| Where | Tokyo |
| Access | The festival centres on Chichibu Shrine and the slope in front of the city hall, both walkable from Seibu-Chichibu Station or Chichibu Station on the Chichibu Railway; Seibu limited express trains run from Ikebukuro in central Tokyo. |
| Schedule status | Check the official site |
| Official information | Open the official site |
Practical tips
- Chichibu is reachable from Ikebukuro on the Seibu Line limited express in well under two hours; reserved seats sell out for the festival, so book the train as early as the tickets open.
- Paid fireworks viewing seats near the launch area are sold in advance by the local tourism association.
- Dress for near-freezing mountain-basin cold: the standing wait for the Dango-zaka climb is long and there is little shelter.
- Return trains are extremely crowded and extra late services are usually run, so check the special timetable rather than the normal one.
Book & compare
This article contains affiliate links. If you book through them we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Prices and availability change — always confirm on the official site before booking.