A street festival on a quiet island in the Genkai Sea, where teams haul a towering float up a flight of stone steps.
Each summer the port town of Gonoura, on Iki Island off the Fukuoka coast, holds the Gonoura Gion Yamakasa — the island’s largest festival and one of its oldest. For more than 270 years, residents have carried a tall yamakasa float through the streets to the chant of “osse, osse.”
The Festival
The festival began as an offering at Yasaka Shrine, a prayer to drive out an epidemic. Over the centuries the prayers widened to take in good harvests, thriving business, abundant catches and the safety of the household, and the float became the town’s summer fixture. Carriers move it through the streets of Gonoura behind a line of singers (utako).
The stretch everyone waits for is the climb: the teams run the heavy float up a steep flight of stone steps, the hardest point of the route.
How to Attend
Free to watch, with no registration. The main procession runs on Sunday, July 26, 2026, from 9:00, and parts of central Gonoura close to traffic during the festival.
- Dates: July 25–26, 2026 (main procession Sunday, July 26, from 9:00)
- Venue: Gonoura Town area, Iki City, Nagasaki (near Gonoura Port)
- Admission: Free to watch
- Highlights: The yamakasa float, the run up the stone steps, the “osse, osse” chant
- Enquiries: Gion Yamakasa Promotion Association 0920-47-0020
- Access: Gonoura Port — jetfoil/ferry from Fukuoka (Hakata) or Karatsu
- Official info: ikikankou.com (Japanese)
Planning Your Visit
Iki is a small island in the Genkai Sea, about 65 minutes by jetfoil from Hakata. It is known for Iki beef, fresh sea urchin, and barley shochu — a spirit the island claims to have originated — and for a dense scatter of ancient shrines that give the place its “island of the gods” name. The festival pairs naturally with a night on the island and a day among its coast roads and shrines.
Source: Iki City Tourism Federation | ikikankou.com | Photo: Iki City Tourism Federation