Hita gion festival 1(A prefectural intangible cultural treasure)




The Hita gion festival,a soul-strirring festival held 
over the summer to pray for peace and to ward off 
illness and damage from storm and flood,began around 
the fourth yeare of Shotoku(1714),when the people of 
Hita began building the festival floats.

At one time the floats were magnificent affairs over 
ten meters high,but from around the end of 
the Meiji Period (the beginning of the 20th century) 
they have only been about 6 metres high to avoid 
electrical wires.

A total of eight floats,four from the Kuma district 
and four the Mameda district,are pulled around the town.

Recently the festival has been showing some of its former 
excitement and bustler;last year the eight groups gatherd 
with their floats in front of JR Hita Station,and this year,
a special float ten meters high made its apperance once again.