Tochigi Float Festival

The Tochigi Float Festival is a long-standing cultural event that celebrates the city’s craftsmanship and community spirit. Originating in the late 19th century, the festival has developed into one of Tochigi’s most distinctive traditions.

The first dashi, or festival floats, appeared in 1874 during the Jinmu Festival held at the prefectural office. At that time, floats were brought in from other regions. Yamato-chō 3-chōme purchased a float depicting Shizuka Gozen, a famous figure in Japanese history and literature, from the Sannō Festival in Tokyo’s Nihonbashi, while Izumi-chō obtained a float featuring the legendary Kankodori, or drum-rooster, from Utsunomiya. Their impressive appearance inspired great enthusiasm throughout Tochigi, prompting neighbourhoods to commission carpenters and master doll-makers to create floats of their own, establishing a tradition that quickly flourished.

In 1893, during the celebration marking the opening of Tochigi’s first Chamber of Commerce, the festival expanded further. The three Machi districts introduced floats portraying heroes from The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, while Yamato-chō 2-chōme built a new float featuring Emperor Jinmu. Six floats, both new and traditional, paraded together, filling the city with excitement. The festival continued to evolve in subsequent decades. In 1906, during the celebrations at Shinmeigu Shrine and Shōkonsha Shrine, Muromachi presented a Momotarō float, while other districts displayed notable floats such as Ōmachi’s Benkei, a Japanese warrior monk, and Yamato-chō 1-chōme’s Shishi-gashira, a lion head purchased earlier in the Meiji era. Since the 1937 celebration of Tochigi City’s incorporation, the festival has generally been held every five years, shifting to a biennial schedule in modern times.

The doll floats themselves are particularly notable for their three-tiered, vertically adjustable design, which in the past was traditionally pulled by black oxen. The upper tier features a large decorative doll representing a mythological or historical figure, while the middle tier is framed by ornate curtains and the lower tier is enclosed with richly embroidered rear curtains. This adjustable construction dates back to the Edo period, when floats were displayed before the Shogun inside Edo Castle and had to be lowered to pass under the gates. The figures adorning the floats represent a broad cultural spectrum, encompassing local history, traditional Japanese mythology, classical literature, and Chinese historical legends. They depict deities, heroes, and celebrated figures, with selections often reflecting the origins, occupations, and traditions of the districts that created them.