Hakata Dontaku

Hakata Dontaku

May 3-4The largest festival in Japan, Hakata Dontaku is held in Fukuoka City (Fukuoka Prefecture) during Golden Week, the first week in May. This festival attracts more than two million spectators every year because Golden Week is a national holiday encompassing Children's Day ( see Kodomo-no-Hi), Greenery Day, Japanese National Foundation Day and Japan Constitution Memorial Day.
The festival originated in the Muromachi Period (1333-1568) as a procession of the merchants of Hakata, an old section of Fukuoka City, paying their new year visit to the daimyo, or feudal lord. The name of the holiday curiously is thought to have derived from the Dutch word Zondag, meaning "Sunday," which was broadened to mean "holiday," and corrupted into Dontaku .
The festival highlight is a three-hour parade with legendary gods on horseback, floats, and musicians playing samisens (a three-stringed instrument similar to a guitar), flutes, and drums.
CONTACTS:
Japan Information Network, Japan Center for Intercultural Communications
2-7-7 Hirakawacho
Chiyodaku
Tokyo, 102-0093 Japan
81-3-3263-5041; fax: 81-3-3230-4107
home.jcic.or.jp
SOURCES:
JapanFest-1965, p. 147