This festival has a long tradition of some 300 years. The origin of this festival is colorful strips of paper hung on the bamboo tree by the princess from Takatsukasa family in Kyoto, who got married to Satake Yoshiyasu, the head of Akita domain. When she came to Akita. She put her nostalgic feelings for her hometown, Kyoto, on strips of paper. The style of the festival has been changed as the time goes on. During Meiji period, each house put its own lanterns in front of their houses. Since Taisho and Showa period, people have started to hang a big-sized lantern in all the areas of Yuzawa to compete with its beauty.
During the festival period, each house put a bamboo tree with five-colored strips of papers in front. Also, several different sized lanterns with beautiful paintings, such as Ukiyo-e, are put on the street. When the sun sets, those lanterns are lighted all at once. Its colorfulness and elegance are the attracting points of this festival. Since each lantern has to take many steps to create, such as designing, drawing a draft, and coloring, it takes about one month to create one whole lantern.
The general information about the festival (Japanese only)
The virtual version of the festival held in 2021 (Japanese only)
How it looks in the actual festival (English subtitle available)
Current activities
Tanabata Edoro festival is held during the same period every year.
Date: August 5th to 7th
Time: 7:30 pm -10:30 pm
Place: Yuzawa area