The Hitachi Furyumono festival, inscribed as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2016, takes place during Golden Week in Hitachi City, Ibaraki. Six enormous floats, each housing a three-tiered mechanical puppet theatre, are wheeled through the city streets, stopping to perform dramatic scenes from Japanese mythology and folklore. The puppets — some standing over six metres tall — are operated by teams of craftspeople inside the floats using intricate traditional mechanisms. The night performances, when the floats are illuminated and the mechanical puppets enact their stories against a dark sky, are truly unforgettable.
- Type
- Festival
- Category
- Matsuri
- Season
- Spring
- Month
- Early May (Golden Week)
- Region
- Kanto
- Prefecture
- Ibaraki
- City
- Hitachi
Highlights
- ◆UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity since 2016
- ◆Six floats each containing a three-tiered mechanical puppet theatre
- ◆Puppets up to six metres tall performing mythological dramas
- ◆Spectacular illuminated night performances during Golden Week
- ◆One of Japan's most unique and technically extraordinary festivals