Sawara Grand Festival: Floats and the Nonoji Turn

Twice a year the old merchant quarter of Sawara, in Katori City, Chiba Prefecture, hands its streets over to towering wooden floats. The Sawara Grand Festival is the collective name for two events: the Yasaka Shrine summer festival held in the Honjuku district in July, and the Suwa Shrine autumn festival held in the Shinjuku district in October. Between them, twenty-four floats are pulled through lanes lined with plastered storehouses and old shopfronts. The tradition runs back about three hundred years. In 2004 the Sawara float rituals were designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property of Japan, and in December 2016 they were inscribed on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list.

Floats Crowned with Four-Metre Figures

Each Sawara float is built from solid zelkova and covered on every side with deep relief carving in the bold Kanto manner. Standing on top is a figure up to four metres tall, made by doll masters working between the Edo and Meiji periods, with each district keeping its own subject. Because the lanes are narrow, you usually see the figure first, sailing above the tiled roofs, and only afterwards does the float itself edge into view. Ten floats appear at the summer festival and fourteen in autumn. Once night falls, rows of lanterns are hung along the frames, and along the Ono River the reflections double the effect.

Sawara Bayashi and the Nonoji Turn

Inside every float sits a band playing Sawara Bayashi, music counted among the three great festival ensembles of Japan. Large and small drums, flutes and hand gongs are joined here by the shamisen, which gives the sound its particular sweetness. Different pieces belong to different moments, so the melody changes when a float moves down a street, turns a corner or passes a rival district. The climax is the display known as the nonoji turn, in which several tonnes of float are spun around one front wheel to trace a wide looping curve. It works only if every hand on the rope moves as one. The chanting climbs, the timber creaks, and the crowd answers with a roar you can feel through the paving.

Three Centuries of Two Festivals

The Suwa festival, parent of the autumn event, is said to have been founded in 1721, and the distinctive Sawara style of float took its present shape from the Bunsei era, between 1819 and 1829. Sawara grew rich on river shipping along the Tone, and its merchant houses poured that wealth and a good deal of pride into outdoing one another. That competition is why the carving is so fine.

Tips for Visiting

Floats run from ten in the morning until ten at night, so there is no need to stand in one spot all day. The lanes are narrow and a passing float blocks a street completely, so pick your viewing point and get there early. The nonoji turn is performed at the wider crossings, and checking the day's plan at an information point saves a lot of wandering. July afternoons are hot, while October evenings cool quickly, so bring a layer.

Getting There

The nearest station is Sawara on the JR Narita Line, about 110 minutes from Tokyo Station and about 70 minutes from Chiba Station; a highway bus also runs from Tokyo Station. By car, it is roughly ten minutes from the Sawara-Katori interchange. During the festival a free temporary car park with space for about 1,000 vehicles opens on the Tone riverbed, and from there you walk into the old town.

Practical Information

• Dates: Summer festival, the Friday, Saturday and Sunday on or after 10 July; autumn festival, the Friday, Saturday and Sunday centred on the second Saturday of October
• Venue: Summer, the Honjuku district around Yasaka Shrine (Sawara-i, Katori City, Chiba); autumn, the Shinjuku district around Suwa Shrine
• Enquiries: Katori City Commerce and Tourism Division 0478-54-1111; Suigo Sawara Tourist Association 0478-52-6675
• Access: Sawara Station on the JR Narita Line; 10 minutes from the Sawara-Katori interchange
• Parking: Temporary car park on the Tone riverbed, about 1,000 spaces, free
• In rain: Held in rain, with plastic sheeting over the float figures
• Heritage status: Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property (2004); UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage (December 2016)
• Official website: https://www.city.katori.lg.jp/sightseeing/matsuri/

* Dates, details and prices are subject to change. Please check the official website before you go.

(Sources: Katori City official website)