Rikuzentakata’s 900 Year Tradition – Kenka Tanabata and Ugoku Tanabata

The History of Tanabata

Tanabata is a summer festival that has been celebrated all over Japan for over a millennium. The festival first came to Japan from China in the year 755 A.D., and was based on the Qixi Festival, which draws its origins from the popular Asian folktale The Weaver Girl and the Cowherd. As the legend states, a weaver girl and a cowherd fall in love, but their love is forbidden so they are exiled to opposite sides of the Milky Way. However, they are allowed to reunite for one day each year on the seventh day of the seventh month. Thus, a festival was started to honor the day when the weaver girl and the cowherd can be together and celebrate their love.

After the Tanabata festival was introduced to Japan, it quickly spread across the country, and over time the festival celebrations began to vary greatly from region to region and city to city. While its exact beginnings are unknown, it is widely stated that the Tanabata festival came to the city of Rikuzentakata, a small city in south-east Iwate prefecture, over nine hundred years ago.

Tanabata in Rikuzentakata

The city of Rikuzentakata celebrates Tanabata on August 7th of every year (one month later than the festival is celebrated elsewhere), and the city is unique for holding not one, but two separate Tanabata celebrations on the same day. The first of these two Tanabata celebrations is called Ugoku Tanabata, which means “moving” Tanabata, and the second is called Kenka Tanabata, which means “fighting” Tanabata.

Ugoku and Kenka Tanabata have grown especially important to the local community in the years following the Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami disaster of 2011, in which the small seaside city lost around 80% of its buildings and the lives of almost two thousand citizens. Now, as the citizens gather for Tanabata, it is a way for them to reminisce about what was lost as well as to share in the spirit of recovery and hope for the future. The city of Rikuzentakata has a long history of suffering damage from earthquakes and tsunami, but despite any hardships the Ugoku Tanabata and Kenka Tanabata festivals and the Rikuzentakata Spirit have continued unfazed for the last nine hundred years, and are sure to continue for nine hundred more.

Ugoku Tanabata

For this celebration, twelve neighborhoods of Rikuzentakata each construct their own lavish float, called a dashi, outfitted with lights and streamers and painted in bright, joyous colors. The dashi floats are driven along a parade route along to taiko drumming and flute playing. Before the tsunami disaster of March 2011, the parade route went through the center of the downtown, but since the disaster the route has been altered each year to accommodate the large-scale construction efforts. Eventually, the parade route for Ugoku Tanabata will find its new home in the central commercial district currently being constructed on raised land, safe from future tsunami.

At night, the dashi floats each return to their home neighborhoods and citizens gather around to listen to taiko drumming and chanting admiring the impressive sight of the dashi float all lit up. The taiko drumming and chanting continue late on until the night, and everyone remains as long as they can, knowing that it will be another year until they can see this sight again.

Kenka Tanabata

In Kenka Tanabata, which originated in the Rikuzentakata district of Kesen-cho, large dashi floats similar to the ones used for Ugoku Tanabata are pulled by long ropes and crashed into each other to the roaring beat of taiko drums, while spectators watch on the sidelines and cheer for their favorite float. The moment that the two floats are crashed together is quite the unique sight—full of vigor and excitement. After the collision, men standing at the top of each float swipe at each other with long tree branches, and participants at ground level pull each float with all their might until one of them gives way.

There are two float collisions on the day of Tanabata: one during the day, and one after night fall. The day-time collision and the night-time collision each have their own charm, so it is best to stick around to watch both of them. For the downtime before and in between collisions, there are several food stalls set up in the area, so people are encouraged to eat and socialize.

Many other cities in Japan have celebrations similar to Ugoku Tanabata, but Rikuzentakata is the only city in Japan to celebrate Kenka Tanabata; thus, it is a point of pride for the locals, especially the residents of the Kesen-cho district where the festival has its roots.

The Tanabata Festival takes place every year on August 7th, so please make the trip to Rikuzentakata to see the spectacle for yourself—if not this year then sometime in the future. Whether you see Ugoku Tanabata, Kenka Tanabata, or both, it will be an experience you won’t soon forget.