In the hillside town of Yatsuo, dancers move slowly through unlit lanes by paper lantern, faces hidden under deep straw hats, to the sound of a kokyū — a bowed string instrument with a thin, keening tone — and a singer. There is no shouting, no drum, and the crowd is asked to be quiet.
It is a prayer against wind: the dates fall on the 210th day from the start of spring in the old reckoning, traditionally when typhoons threaten the rice just before harvest.
No attendance figure is collected in this pass.
The dates are fixed at 1–3 September. Yatsuo is a small town and the festival has become famous enough that the lanes are now very crowded for an event whose entire character is restraint — which the town itself says, and asks visitors to respect.
PlanningFixed on 1–3 September — the 210th day from the start of spring, when typhoons are expected.
Dates
computed from the rule
Computed from the recurrence rule we record for this entry, not copied from a listing. A date marked ~ comes from a calendar conversion and the observance may fall a day or two either side.