3 days ago
Japan's scorching summer heat forcing fireworks, other festivals to change schedules
TOKYO -- The extreme summer heat that has struck Japan in recent years due climate change is altering the landscape of annual fireworks and other festivals in the country, forcing the summer events to be moved to spring or autumn. Even so, there are cases where it has been difficult to reschedule the festivals due to their traditional nature.
Farewell to fireworks viewing in 'yukata' summer kimonos?
The Adachi Fireworks Festival, an annual summer tradition in Tokyo's Adachi Ward with a history of roughly 100 years, is set to be held May 31 this year instead of late July as had been the norm.
Last summer, the festival had to be canceled shortly before its start due to an abrupt thunderstorm. By moving the festival forward this year, organizers hope to avoid the risk of cancellation due to bad weather, but "the extreme heat is more serious than just that," points out Adachi Ward Mayor Yayoi Kondo on the ward's official website.
Last year, the temperature on the day of the fireworks festival had already climbed to 30 degrees Celsius by 7 a.m., and shortly after 10 a.m. it had surged above 35 C. A security guard was taken to a hospital due to heatstroke and many visitors also complained of feeling ill. As the main venue is located on the riverbed, there were few spots for sheltering from the scorching sun during preparations, taking an unusually serious toll on pyrotechnicians and city employees who were there from early in the day.
While Mayor Kondo acknowledged, "Some people want to see the fireworks festival held in summer, calling it a summer tradition," she sought understanding for moving up the event schedule, saying, "The summer lately has significantly changed from what we knew as 'Japanese summer,' where people clad in 'yukata' summer kimonos admired fireworks while cooling themselves with 'uchiwa' paper fans."
A representative of the Adachi Tourism Exchange Association said of the schedule change, "We're receiving positive feedback this year, such as 'I can bring my young child'" to the festival.
'Passing down tradition ...'
Japan's local regions are also changing the schedules of their traditional events.
Toride Jinja shrine's Kujirabune event in Yokkaichi, Mie Prefecture -- an event appearing on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list as one of the "Yama, Hoko, Yatai, float festivals in Japan" -- will be pushed back from Aug. 14 and 15 to Sept. 27 and 28 this year.
In the festival, which dates back to the Edo period (1603-1867), people drag around floats shaped like ships to imitate whaling. Of the nearly 100 participants including staff, almost half are aged 60 or older due to the aging of the community, while elementary school students take on the role of harpooners aboard the floats.
While organizers have taken every step possible to beat the heat, such as borrowing mist sprayers from the municipal government, they decided to change the date this year as "it would be too late if any emergency occurred."
As the schedule change means the festival will no longer coincide with the Bon holiday season in August, the event this year will be held as part of dedication rites of the annual Gani festival that has traditionally been held at the shrine on Sept. 23. Masahiko Kato, 70, chairperson of the Tomida Kujirabune preservation society association, coordinated with locals and the Agency for Cultural Affairs regarding the date change, and strove to publicize it and secure enough personnel, calling it "a change to pass down the tradition."
Event schedules changing across Japan
In the Tohoku region in Japan's northeast, organizers of the Soma Nomaoi festival in the Soma region of Fukushima Prefecture, featuring costumed warriors on horseback, have since last year moved up the event from July to May to prioritize the safety of horses and people taking part, after a horse died of sunstroke during the festival in July 2023.
Summer festivals in southwest Japan's Kyushu region have also seen a spate of scheduling changes this year. The Wasshoi Hyakuman Natsu Matsuri festival in Kitakyushu is being pushed back from August to September, while the Saga Castle Town Sakae no Kuni festival in the city of Saga, originally held in August, is now due to take place from May 31 to June 1.
Difficult to change some festivals
However, traditional seasonal celebrations like the "Tanabata" star festival, which normally takes place around July 7, are difficult to reschedule, as their significance would be lost.
The Shonan Hiratsuka Tanabata Festival, featuring nearly 10-meter-tall decorations adorning the shopping streets in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, used to attract some 1.5 million visitors until 2019, but the number declined to roughly 1.1 million both in 2023 and 2024, with observers attributing it to the scorching summer heat.
It is said that some children from day care centers and kindergartens forgo participating in the daytime parades while elderly people also refrain from watching the parades.
"As it is a seasonal festival, we are not considering changing the schedule," said an official at the Hiratsuka Municipal Government's commerce and tourism division, adding that the city will install misting fans as a countermeasure against the summer heat.
(Japanese original by Shuji Ozaki, Digital News Group)
