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Festivals · Festival · onsen district

Man'yō Bamboo Lights

Sat 3 Oct – Sun 4 Oct · Sat 18:00–20:30, Sun 18:00–20:00

Two evenings when the onsen district is lit by thousands of bamboo lanterns, with a tanuki parade through the streets on Saturday.

This event has finished

Bamboo lanterns glowing at night
Image: Yugawara Onsen official tourism site

About the event

For two nights in October, lanterns cut from bamboo glow along the paths of Man'yō Park and the old onsen streets, a nod to the moonlight in the Man'yōshū poems that made Yugawara famous.

On Saturday the Tanuki Festival adds a noisy parade of raccoon dogs, from a local legend, along Yumoto-dōri at 16:30, then a stage show at the Genkan Terrace from 18:00 to 20:00, with food stalls. It's free, and goes ahead in light rain.

Take the Oku-Yugawara bus to Ochiai-bashi (9 minutes). The lights start at the park entrance by the stop.