Wish upon stars, Shonan Hiratsuka Star Festival
- Orange
- Jul 6, 2019
- 3 min read
Some people say "Shonan Hiratsuka Star Festival" is the most gorgeous star festival (Tanabata) in Japan. It's time that you experience and confirm that reputation is true by yourself.
湘南ひらつか七夕まつりは、日本で一番豪華な七夕祭とも言われています。ぜひ、お出かけください。
【Date】July/5/2019(Fri) to July/7/2019(Sun)
【Place】Whole Hiratsuka city mainly at JR Hiratsuka station north shopping street.
【Time】Each day until at 9:00pm (The last day is until at 8:00pm)
【Admission】 Free
Transportation
2 minutes walking from the north exit of JR Hiratsuka station.
From Tokyo station, 60 minutes by JR Tokyo Ueno Line.
From Shinjuku station, 65 minutes by JR Shonan Shinjuku Line.
★Tokyo Cheapo (English) https://tokyocheapo.com/events/shonan-hiratsuka-tanabata-festival/
★Official site (Japanese) http://www.tanabata-hiratsuka.com/ ★Leaflet (Japanese) http://www.tanabata-hiratsuka.com/global-image/units/upfiles/7737-1-20180622200122_b5b2cd70243737.pdf
Overview
The Tanabata Festival started on the basis of the legend of a Chinese love story of cow boy and weaving girl, and was introduced to Japan as a star festival.
At first it was inherited in the capital city life mainly among the court nobles, and it became a custom to pray for the achievement of calligraphy, love, and so on.
The Edo Shogunate (1603-1868) had taken this custom as an annual festival, it became a samurai custom, gradually spreading it to the general public, and currently it becomes as the Tanabata Festival, which is speciality according to each region.
Hiratsuka's Tanabata Festival was started as a post-war commercial promotion plan, and has the special feature of the gorgeous of the Tanabata ornament, which is said to be the best in Japan, supported by active commercial power.
About 500 ornaments in the downtown area, especially gorgeous decorations covering the streets at the main venue "Shonan Star Mall".
Some of them are large ornaments over 10m, and this is also a caracteristic of ornaments such as active popular athletes and popular animals, characters and other popular trends.
During Tanabata Festival, various events are hold such as Tanabata decoration contest, parades. And this festival is developing as a summer special representative of Japan.
Furthermore, during the Tanabata Festival period, Shonan Hiratsuka Weaving Girl Princess is selected in the contest and she is further boosting the festival with various events such as parades and visiting city. Japanese http://www.tanabata-hiratsuka.com/summary/
History
Hiratsuka was devastatingly hit by a large air raid in July 1945 because there was a navy gunpowder manufacturing plant, and about 70% of the central city area had been burned down.
However, reconstruction was quick with the "Five-Year Plan for War Reconstruction". When it was almost finished, the "Reconstruction Festival" was held in July 1950.
And this is also coincidently the same timing with finishing the rice plant of neighboring farmers, and extremely many people had visited this festival.
Therefore, the Hiratsuka Chamber of Commerce and Hiratsuka City Shopping Street Association held the first Tanabata Star Festival, which blew in the spirit of Hiratsuka merchants after the example of Sendai Tanabata Festival in July 1951.
In 1952 and 1953, songs such as "Hirazuka Shichisuta Ondo", "Konanicho Ondo" and "Hiratsuka Koishiya" debuted and lended a touch of color to the Tanabata Festival.
From the 7th Tanabata Festival in 1957, Hiratsuka City becomes the sponsorship, and wishing for each industry development, and playing an important role as a place to introduce Hiratsuka city widely to the whole country, and it has grown to the Tanabata Festival representable of Japan today. Japanese http://www.tanabata-hiratsuka.com/summary/about/#noscript
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