Tsushima City

If Kyoto’s Gion festival is the biggest of the summer festivals, the Owari Tsushima Tenno Matsuri in Aichi is perhaps the most spectacular thanks to its beacon of shining lights floating down the Tenno river. What is the Tsushima Tenno Festival? For 500 years people have been braving Aichi’s mid-summer humidity and flocking to the banks of the Tennogawa to see this glorious summer spectacle, the highlight of which is the sight of five brilliantly illuminated ‘makiwara-bune’ boats gliding through the gently undulating water. Designated as one of the National Important Intangible Folk Cultural Assets in 1981, it takes place on the fourth Saturday and Sunday of July. Yoi-matsuri at Tsushima Tenno Festival The festival begins on Saturday 10:00 when the portable Mikoshi shrines are moved from Tennogawa Park to Tsushima Shrine, and people will begin to gather throughout the day, staking their claims on the river banks, eating and drinking from the yatai food stalls. However it does not begin in earnest until early evening with the ‘yoi-matsuri’, or night festival. At around 18:00 there are demonstrations of matchlock weapons, shamisen (a Japanese string instrument kind of like a banjo) as well as other traditional Japanese arts and music. At 19:00 teams begin to…