TOYAMA’S UNESCO FLOAT FESTIVALS…REIGNITING CULTURE THROUGH THE EYES OF A NEW GENERATION

In the heart of Japan’s Hokuriku region, the ancient art of float-building isn’t just a spectacle—it’s a living expression of community pride, ancestral devotion, and generational craftsmanship that has stood the test of time. Toyama Prefecture is home to four UNESCO-recognized float festivals that, when experienced together, tell a compelling story of how tradition still moves through the streets and hearts of today’s communities and continue to display the relevance of heritage throughout with each passing year.

These vibrant celebrations—the Takaoka Mikurumayama Festival, the Johana Hikiyama Festival, the Uozu Tatemon Festival, and the Hojozu Hachiman-gu Shrine Hikiyama Tsukiyama Festival—may take place in different seasons and settings, but they share a foundational belief: floats are more than parade pieces, they are embodiments of history, spirit, and local identity brought to life by human hands. These festivals also serve what is perhaps a more crucial purpose—keeping traditions alive and passing them down to new generations.

Each May, the Takaoka Mikurumayama Festival takes place in a gorgeous procession of seven towering floats. The tradition dates back to the early 17th century and has continually served as a means to showcase Toyama’s renowned artisanal metalwork, lacquerware and tapestry, earning them global UNESCO recognition. Meanwhile, in the historic town of Johana, elaborately decorated floats carry performers through the streets accompanied by lion dances and traditional music.

Summer’s lantern-lit celebration each August is the Uozu Tatemon Festival where streets glow below 16-meter-high lantern floats from the sea to a sacred shrine as a prayer for safety at sea and a wish for bountiful catches, uniting the community with gratitude blended with pageantry.

Newly inscribed by UNESCO in December 2025, the Hojozu Hachiman-gu Festival in Imizu City, held each October, stands out for its scale and dramatic energy. Thirteen elaborately decorated floats—the most in Toyama—roll through the streets by day and glow with lanterns by night, their powerful turns through narrow corners accompanied by spirited chants. A rare ritual welcoming deities from the sea adds a distinctive spiritual depth to the celebration.  

What ties these four festivals together is not simply UNESCO recognition, it’s the people behind them, the community that organizes the events, that build and pull the floats and who pass skills down from parent to child.  Each float stands as a monument to Toyama’s interwoven cultural legacy and serves as a reminder that traditions aren’t archived in museums but are acted out, celebrated, and renewed in the streets. Their UNESCO status now ensures that these spectacular displays of craftsmanship and communal devotion are preserved and shared with the world.