F E S T I V A L ／ FEST-025

Toyohama Tai Festival (Giant Sea Bream Parade)

豊浜鯛まつりとよはまたいまつり

In the fishing town of Toyohama on the Chita Peninsula, the most spectacular parade object in the local summer festival is not a drum tower, not a flaming torch installation, and not a decorated float — it is a sea bream. Specifically, it is a bamboo-and-wood construction covered in white silk representing a sea bream 10 to 18 meters tall and weighing over one ton, carried through the streets by teams of young men who must coordinate the motion of an enormous sculpted fish through narrow coastal lanes. There are five such fish of varying sizes, and their procession — accompanied by the chant "Tokoya, Toko-se!" — culminates in the fish being carried into the sea, their return to the divine ocean completing the ceremony's logic: the fish, which comes from the sea and sustains the community, is returned to the sea as thanks. The image of a 15-meter fabric sea bream moving through a fishing village is one of the most characteristically specific images the Japanese festival calendar produces.