The Hamamatsu Festival is held over a three-day period every May and features battles of big kites during the day, and “Gekineri”, parades of gorgeous and palatial floats, during the evening. The kite matches date back some 430 years to the time that local residents flew kites bearing the name of the first born son, Yoshihiro, of Hozen lio, the feudal lord of lmba, to celebrate the birth. Following that start and up through today, local people have been flying kites whenever their first sons are born in hopes of healthy growth. The current kite battles evolved through years of these events. Kites used in the matches these days typically measure between l.5×l. 5m and 3.64×3.64m. The float parades in this festival evolved from the custom in which the local people, on their way back from the kite matches, erected four poles on the corners of their Daihachi Guruma (large, two-wheeled cart) on which they placed their kites, which served as a roof. During the festival, the entire town of Hamamatsu is filled with a lively atmosphere both day and night, with the sounds of drums and bugles.

The Yosakoi Soran Festival is the first of its kind, formed by a combination of Kochi Prefecture’s “Yosakoi” festival and Hokkaido’s old folk song, “Soran Bushi.” It is held in Sapporo every June, with participating teams competing with their own dance versions to accompany Soran Bushi. They design their own clothes, and choreograph their renditions of the music and dances. The idea for the festival was conceived by a college student who had visited Kochi for the Yosakoi Festival, and was thrilled when he saw there many young people of his own age dancing energetically and receiving waves of applause. He was overwhelmed by a strong desire to bring the same excitement to Hokkaido. In June 1992, he and some 99 other college students organized the first Yosakoi Soran Festival, in Sapporo, in which 10 teams comprised of 1,000 dancers and an audience of 200,000 participated. The festival grew rapidly in size and popularity and, in 1999, the 8th annual festival saw a tota1 of 333 teams comprising 34,000 dancers, drawing an audience of 1,935,000. It is now a huge event, the summer equivalent of the renowned Sapporo Snow Festival in terms of size and popularity. The organizing students are now thinking about ways to make the festival still larger and international, eventually on level rivaling Rio’s carnival.