What Is the Kawagoe Festival? Floats, Hayashi Music and the Hikkawase

Published 2026-10-04 · Sources checked 2026-10-04 · Treasure Hunting Co., Ltd.

This guide is for visitors who want to see the Kawagoe Festival, the biggest event of the year in Kawagoe, Saitama Prefecture. It follows the festival's official English website and the Koedo Kawagoe Tourism Association. We read them on 2026-10-04. The official site says the 2026 festival will be held on October 17 and 18, but schedules can change, so check the site before you go.

What the festival is

The festival is held for two days on the third Saturday and Sunday of October. The official site calls it the liveliest event of the year in Koedo Kawagoe. Its full name is the Kawagoe Hikawa Festival Float Event. It grew from the festival at Kawagoe Hikawa Shrine, and the site dates the origin to the first year of Keian (1648), when the Kawagoe castle lord promoted the shrine festival. It describes a history of over 370 years.

The float event was designated a National Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property in 2005, and in 2016 it was registered as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage. The tourism association says about one million people come over the two days.

The floats, called dashi

The festival site describes the dashi as wooden floats that stand about eight metres tall and weigh about three tonnes on average, with big wooden wheels and pulled by ropes. They have two storeys. The lower stage holds the musicians. Above it sits a square platform with bright curtains, and on top stands a life-sized doll. The dolls show historical figures and characters from folk tales and Noh, and each float is named after its doll.

Two engineering details stand out. The doll and its platform can be lowered into the float, which cuts its height by half. The site says this was devised so the floats could pass through Edo Castle gates. The floats also have a revolving stage on top that turns 360 degrees while the wheels stay fixed, so two floats can face each other without steering the wheels. The site says this was introduced in 1901. It also says the floats have no steering wheel or brakes and that about 50 people pull and direct one.

There are 29 floats in total. Of these, 28 belong to neighbourhoods and one belongs to Kawagoe City Hall, where children pull it. On average, 15 to 20 floats take part each year.

The music, called hayashi

Each float carries a hayashi group of five musicians and one masked dancer. The instruments are a flute, a big drum, two small drums and a hand bell. The site says that different schools play differently, so the same tune can sound very different from float to float.

The three main events

• Jinkosai, Saturday, 1:00 to 2:30 pm. The spirits of the gods of Hikawa Shrine are moved into a portable shrine and paraded through the town, followed by the floats. The route runs through the kurazukuri streets, so the daytime view with the old buildings behind is popular.
• Yoiyama, Saturday, 6:00 to 7:00 pm. The floats are lit by lanterns and take their places in town to play hayashi. The site calls it the best chance to enjoy the music and suggests moving between floats.
• Hikkawase, Saturday 7:00 to 9:00 pm and Sunday 6:30 to 9:00 pm. When floats meet at a crossing, they turn to face each other and compete in lively hayashi, while people shake paper lanterns. The site says it is not a real contest and resembles a jam session.

The site adds a warning: the Hikkawase is usually the most crowded part, and the floats follow their own routes, so meeting points are somewhat random. Big crossroads are the busiest. It suggests moving around and following the sound of the hayashi, and mentions an app that shows each float's position in real time.

The festival museum

If your dates miss the festival, the Kawagoe Festival Museum shows two real floats, changed periodically, and a six-minute film on a large screen. The museum page says the film is shown every 20 minutes. Some features were listed as suspended or on hiatus when we read the page.

Getting there

The festival site gives about 30 minutes from Ikebukuro on the Tobu Tojo Line and about 50 minutes from Shinjuku on the JR Saikyo Line. It says the crowds make walking to the festival area slow, so arriving early helps. For full access details see our guide to getting to Kawagoe.

What we could not verify, and therefore left out

• Which floats appear in a given year, and the exact 2026 hours beyond the dates quoted above.
• Seat or viewing-area prices, if any.
• Whether the museum's film and musical demonstrations have resumed.

Related guides

• How do you get to Kawagoe from Tokyo by train and get around the old town?
• What is Kawagoe? Little Edo, kurazukuri warehouses, the Bell of Time and sweet potatoes

Sources

All URLs retrieved 2026-10-04.

1. Kawagoe Festival (official site) — (the 2026 dates)
2. About / History (Kawagoe Festival official site) — (origin, 2005 and 2016 designations)
3. Feature part 2 (Kawagoe Festival official site) — (floats, hayashi, schedule, tips)
4. Festival Floats (Kawagoe Festival official site) — (float structure)
5. Kawagoe Festival Museum (official site) — (museum)
6. Feel Edo Culture (Koedo Kawagoe Tourism Association) — (about one million visitors, Hikawa Shrine)