The Karatsu Kunchi

The town of Karatsu on the northern coast of Kyushu has been holding a three day kunchi for around 400 years and is famous for its unique, colourful and very large floats. Called ‘hikiyama’, which translates as ‘massive mountains’, the wooden, lacquered floats weigh-in between 2 and 5 tons and are pulled by a team of bearers up to a hundred strong….