DISCOVER FUKUI

The Sagicho Festival is held in Katsuyama on the last full weekend of February. This festival celebrates the coming of spring, and serves as a prayer for an abundant harvest. Twelve temporary towers are built around town, where performers dressed in colorful garments play traditional songs.

Twelve yagura (towers) are erected in various neighborhoods throughout Katsuyama city. On top of these, adults dressed in red nagajuban (long undergarments), along with children, revel to the lively tempo of hayashi (accompaniment music) played on shamisen, flutes, and gongs, performing unique, comical gestures. This spectacle is a feature unique to the "Katsuyama Sagicho" nationwide, and people call it a "bizarre festival."
By Sunday evening, the sacred objects from each neighborhood are carried to Benten Riverbank, famous for its Benten cherry trees, where preparations for the "Dondo-yaki" bonfire begin.

The finale comes on Sunday night. A sacred fire is carried from Shinmei Jinja Shrine out to stacks of wood by the Kuzuryu River, to light bonfires collectively known as the Dondo-yaki. The roaring fires offer a chance to warm up in the cold February night, and people cook mochi over the fires as a prayer for good health in the coming year.

At 7:30 PM, sacred fire lit at Shinmei Shrine is carried by torches from each district to the Dondoyaki site at Benten Riverbank. Signaled by smoke signals at 8:00 PM, the torches are lit simultaneously. The festival culminates with a spectacular finale: a magnificent display of flames blazing beautifully against the winter sky and reflecting off the snow.
This "Dondo-yaki" sends off the gods, concluding the two-day fire festival events while praying for a bountiful harvest and the prevention of fires.

The Katsuyama Sagicho Festival is known as the festival that heralds spring in the Okuetsu region, and with it, the footsteps of spring can be heard approaching Katsuyama.