Abare Matsuri

The Abare matsuri in Ishikawa is also known as the Brave Sea Festival, ‘Abare’ means ‘Powerful’ and has some 330 years of history. It started as a counteract to a violent epidemic then raging in the area. The festival has a reputation to be the most fierce in all of Japan. The main features of the festival are around 50 so called kiriko-floats (which are also used for other smaller festivals all over the place from july to october) and two small mikoshis (little shrines) which are ultimately going on a frenetic rampage of destruction where participants try their best to trash them.

I guess the fierceness of this festival was slightly dampened this year by all the rain and bad weather going on. I expected to see some fires, but there weren’t any this time.  Nevertheless, i really enjoyed the vibe at this festival and Ishikawa itself is also a really nice region with plenty of nature and nice things. It’s well worth a trip if you are in Japan early in July! The festival happens every year on the first Friday and Saturday of July.

There are plenty of other festivals (Nada Kenka Matsuri and the Kishiwada Danjiri come to mind) were some people actually die every now and then that are probably more fierce then this one, but i guess i will have to go again next year to see for myself and hope for better weather this time!

Transport: Coming by car or in a tourist group by coach/bus is probably the best option. There are no trains going to Noto and accommodation is very limited. The closest you can come to Noto is to take the train to Nanao/Anamizu and then from there take a bus (another ~30km).

Website: Noto town website has information about it in Japanese.