Takayama Festival Floats Exhibition Hall (Salão dos Carros do Festival de Takayama)

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About Takayama Festival Floats Exhibition Hall (Salão dos Carros do Festival de Takayama)

The Takayama Festival takes place twice a year: the spring festival at Hie Shrine in mid-April, and the autumn festival at Sakurayama Hachimangu Shrine in early October. On both occasions, wooden festival floats called yatai, decorated with carvings, lacquer, gilded metal and embroidered textiles, parade through the town. The festival is listed as part of UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage, along with other float festivals in Japan.

The Takayama Festival Float Exhibition Hall (Takayama Matsuri Yatai Kaikan) is on the grounds of Sakurayama Hachimangu Shrine, in the north of the old town. Some of the autumn festival floats are displayed there year-round, on rotation. They are multi-meter-high wheeled structures with roofs, curtains and puppets.

Some floats feature karakuri, mechanical puppets operated by strings, which perform acrobatics and change costumes during the festival. A video and panels explain the parade, the puppets and the history of the families and neighborhoods that maintain the floats. In the same building you can also see a scale model of the Toshogu Shrine in Nikko, crafted by artisans.

Sakurayama Hachimangu Shrine, protector of the town’s northern area, has a cedar-lined approach and stone lanterns. In the nearby streets, some neighborhoods store their floats in tall warehouses with large doors, recognizable by their shape. The autumn festival ends at night with the floats lit by paper lanterns.