Japan's Lantern Festivals & Nights of Light

About this book

Every August, Japan sends its dead home by water and fire: paper lanterns float down dark rivers, giant characters of flame open on mountainsides, and whole towns dance in lantern-lit circles until dawn. And all year round, the country that learned to carry fire in paper and stone lights its temples with ten thousand candles, carves lanterns out of snow, sails lantern boats across its harbours, and fills its streets with poles, floats and bamboo lanterns beyond counting.

Japan's Lantern Festivals & Nights of Light is the complete guide to that world: 200 lantern events across all 47 prefectures — the great toro nagashi floatings and the Shoro Nagashi of Nagasaki; Kyoto's Daimonji and the send-off fires of the north; the candle seas of the manto-e temples; the snow lantern festivals of Hokkaido and Tohoku; the kiriko lanterns of Noto, the Kanto poles of Akita, the Nebuta of Aomori; the Hanatoro lantern roads of Kyoto; and the modern nights — Kobe's Luminarie, the bamboo lanterns of Taketa, sky lanterns over the snowfields, and the candle nights a whole nation joins by switching off its lights.

Each entry tells you what the event is, where to stand, how to take part or watch, and the etiquette that matters — then gives its history and its place in its town's year, in two paragraphs written for that event alone. Memorial and religious observances are treated with the respect they are owed, with clear guidance for guests. Seasons are given as the typical time in ordinary years, with a recorded check date, so the guide stays useful year after year.

Whether you are planning an Obon journey, a winter trip to the snow country, or simply travelling Japan's nights from your armchair, this is the lantern year in one volume — from the first welcoming fires to the last candle of the solstice.