Akita | Travel Guide | Kanto Festival, Kiritanpo, Namahage And Akita Dogs

On summer nights in early August, the main street of Akita fills with towering bamboo poles hung with dozens of glowing paper lanterns. Performers balance them on their palms, foreheads, shoulders, and hips, while drums and flutes play and the crowd shouts encouragement. The Kanto Festival is one of the great summer festivals of northern Japan.

For the rest of the year, Akita is a calm, green city on the Sea of Japan coast. Its castle park is shaded by old trees, its art museum holds a vast mural by Tsuguharu Foujita, and its restaurants serve kiritanpo hot pot and some of the finest sake in Japan.

The city is also a base for exploring a prefecture rich in tradition and nature: the samurai town of Kakunodate, Lake Tazawa, the hot springs of Nyuto, and the Oga Peninsula, home of the Namahage.

Prices and dates are in our yearly Japan update post, so this page stays reliable.

Why Akita Matters

In 1602, after the Battle of Sekigahara, Tokugawa Ieyasu moved the Satake clan from eastern Japan to this remote northern domain. The Satake built Kubota Castle on a hill and laid out a castle town that became the modern city.

The Satake had sided against the Tokugawa, and the move to the cold north was a form of punishment. They nevertheless developed the domain into a prosperous region.

The domain was known for its forests, mines, and rice. Cedar from Akita was prized across Japan, and silver and copper mines brought wealth. Sake brewing flourished thanks to good rice and clean water.

The Ani copper mine and the Innai silver mine were among the most productive in Japan. Akita cedar remains one of the three great cedars of Japan.

In the Meiji era, the city became the capital of Akita Prefecture. The port of Tsuchizaki grew as a trade hub on the Sea of Japan. It was bombed on the last night of the Second World War.

The writer Kobayashi Takiji was born in the prefecture, which has produced many notable writers and painters.

Today, about three hundred thousand people live in the city. It is home to universities, including an English-language international university, and to a strong food and sake culture.

The city is quieter than many prefectural capitals, with wide streets and parks.

Akita at a Glance

Getting There and Around

The Akita Shinkansen Komachi runs from Tokyo to the city in about three and a half to four hours. Between Morioka and Akita it runs on narrower conventional tracks at lower speeds, passing through mountains and rice fields. The Japan Rail Pass and JR East passes cover the route.

The Komachi trains are coupled to Hayabusa trains from Tokyo and separate at Morioka. The red trains are among the most recognisable in Japan.

Akita Airport, about forty minutes from the centre by bus, has flights from Tokyo, Osaka, Sapporo and Nagoya.

Ferries from Akita port link the city with Hokkaido and Niigata.

Overnight ferries to Tomakomai and Otaru carry cars and offer cabins and baths. They suit road trippers.

The station is close to the city centre. Senshu Park, the art museum and the Kanto museum are within walking distance.

The station building has shops, restaurants and a tourist information centre with English-speaking staff.

A rental car is useful for exploring the prefecture, especially the Oga Peninsula and the mountains.

Roads are quiet, but winter driving requires care. Coastal and mountain roads are scenic in every season.

Senshu Park

Senshu Park occupies the site of Kubota Castle. The castle had no stone walls, relying on earthen embankments, and no main keep. The Osumi Yagura, a reconstructed corner turret, offers views over the city.

The park was redesigned in the late nineteenth century by a famous landscape architect. Its paths wind past moats and trees, and its hilltop offers a quiet escape from the city.

The park has ponds, trees, shrines and a museum. Cherry blossoms bloom in late April, and azaleas follow. Autumn colours are lovely.

Hachiman Akita Shrine and Yagi Shrine stand within the grounds, and lotus flowers fill the moat in summer.

The Satake Historical Material Museum displays items linked to the clan.

Armour, documents and art from the Satake family give insight into the domain’s history.

The Kanto Festival

The Akita Kanto Festival takes place from 3 to 6 August. It is one of the three great festivals of Tohoku, along with Aomori’s Nebuta and Sendai’s Tanabata.

A kanto is a long bamboo pole with crossbars hung with dozens of paper lanterns. The largest weigh about fifty kilograms and are about twelve metres tall. Performers balance them on their palms, foreheads, shoulders and lower backs, adding extensions to make them taller.

The lanterns are lit by real candles, and performers must keep the pole balanced to avoid fires. Each lantern bears the crest of a neighbourhood or company.

The festival takes place on Kanto Odori, the main avenue, in the evening. More than two hundred kanto are lifted together, creating a sea of light. The rhythm of drums and flutes and the chant of the crowd make it unforgettable.

Performers pass the poles between each other, each adding extensions to raise the height. When a pole falls, the crowd gasps, and the team quickly lifts it again.

In the daytime, competitions test performers’ skills. After the evening performance, visitors can try lifting smaller kanto and take photos.

Teams are judged on balance, posture, and the stability of the lanterns, and the competition is fierce.

The Kanto is thought to have originated as a ritual to pray for a good harvest and to ward off illness in summer. The lanterns are said to resemble ears of rice.

The festival has been held in some form for more than two hundred and fifty years and is designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property.

Accommodation fills up months in advance. Paid seating is available along the route.

Kanto Festival Folk Museum

The Neburi Nagashi Kan, the Kanto Festival Folk Museum, displays kanto all year. Visitors can try lifting a kanto under the guidance of experienced performers. Performances are held on some days.

Staff show the correct technique, and even a short lift of a small kanto reveals how much skill the performers need.

The museum also covers other festivals and traditions of the city. Next door, the Former Kaneko Family Residence shows the life of a merchant family.

It was a cotton and kimono fabric shop, and its storehouse and shop front are well preserved.

Akita Museum of Art

The Akita Museum of Art, designed by Tadao Ando, stands near Senshu Park. Its concrete and glass building includes a shallow pool on the terrace, looking out over the park.

The museum’s café and terrace overlook Senshu Park, making it a calm place for a break.

Its centrepiece is Events in Akita, a huge mural by Tsuguharu Foujita, a Japanese painter who worked in Paris. The mural, about twenty metres long, depicts festivals and daily life in Akita in the 1930s.

Foujita painted it in 1937 over about two weeks, working with great energy. The mural shows the Kanto Festival, shrine rituals, and everyday life in winter.

Kawabata-dori and Nightlife

Kawabata-dori, along the Asahi River, is the city’s main entertainment district. Izakaya, sake bars and restaurants line the street. It is the best place to try local food and sake.

The area grew as a pleasure quarter in the Edo period and still has a lively evening atmosphere.

Many bars specialise in local sake, offering tasting sets of several breweries. Staff often explain the differences between brewing styles.

Akita Food and Sake

Kiritanpo is made from cooked rice pounded and wrapped around cedar sticks, then grilled. It is eaten grilled with miso or cut and simmered in a hot pot with Hinai jidori chicken, burdock and mushrooms.

Shops sell kiritanpo kits so visitors can make the hot pot at home. In autumn, the new rice harvest makes it especially flavourful.

It originated with hunters and woodcutters in the mountains, who carried rice in this form. Odate, in the north, claims to be its birthplace.

Inaniwa udon, from Yuzawa in the south of the prefecture, is a thin, smooth, hand-stretched udon. It is considered one of Japan’s three great udon.

The noodles are stretched by hand over several days. Their silky texture is best enjoyed cold with dipping sauce.

Shottsuru is a fish sauce made from hatahata, a local fish. Shottsuru nabe, a hot pot with hatahata, is a winter dish.

It is one of Japan’s three great fish sauces, made by fermenting fish with salt for a year or more.

Iburigakko is smoked pickled daikon, a traditional preserved food. It is eaten with cream cheese in bars.

The radishes are smoked over wood fires in the rafters of farmhouses through the snowy months, then pickled in rice bran.

Babahera ice cream is sold by older women at roadside stalls. They shape it into a rose with a spatula.

The name means grandmother’s spatula. The pink and yellow ice cream, flavoured with strawberry and banana, is a summer tradition.

Akita sake is highly regarded. Several breweries in the city offer tours and tastings. Akita is known for clean, smooth sake made with local rice and water.

The prefecture has dozens of breweries. Many use a local yeast strain developed in the prefecture, which gives a fresh, fruity aroma.

Akita Dogs

The Akita dog is a large, loyal breed from the prefecture. The famous Hachiko, who waited for his owner at Shibuya Station in Tokyo, was an Akita from Odate.

The breed nearly disappeared in the early twentieth century, and preservation efforts saved it. It was designated a natural monument of Japan in 1931.

Visitors can sometimes meet Akita dogs at events in the city. The Akita Dog Visitor Center in Odate, in the north of the prefecture, offers more opportunities.

The breed is calm and dignified, and owners usually welcome polite requests to say hello. Always ask before touching a dog.

The Namahage of Oga

On New Year’s Eve, men dressed as Namahage, demons with fierce masks and straw capes, visit homes on the Oga Peninsula. They warn children to be good and bless the household for the new year.

They burst into homes shouting, asking whether there are lazy children or misbehaving people. The family offers food and sake, and the Namahage leave with a blessing.

The Namahage tradition is recognised by UNESCO as part of the intangible cultural heritage of Japan, along with similar visiting deity rituals.

It is listed with other visiting deity rituals from across Japan, known as Raiho-shin.

The Namahage Museum and the Oga Shinzan Folklore Museum display masks and offer performances. The Namahage Sedo Festival in February brings the demons out in a dramatic night festival.

The museum shows more than a hundred Namahage costumes from different villages, each with its own style of mask. The folklore museum recreates a Namahage visit in a traditional house.

The Oga Peninsula in Depth

The Oga Peninsula juts into the Sea of Japan west of the city, about an hour by car or train. Its coast has cliffs, rock formations, and fishing ports. Mount Kanpu, at its base, has a revolving observation deck with views over the peninsula and the plain.

Nyudozaki, at the northern tip, has a black-and-white lighthouse and grassy cliffs. Sunsets here are beautiful. The Godzilla Rock, a rock formation shaped like the movie monster, is a popular photo spot at sunset.

A row of stone monuments marks the 40th parallel north, which passes through the cape.

Oga is also known for ishiyaki, a fisherman’s dish in which red-hot stones are dropped into a wooden tub of fish and miso broth, bringing it to a boil instantly. Restaurants and an aquarium on the peninsula show the technique.

The dish is cooked in front of diners for dramatic effect, with steam rising as the stones hit the broth.

The Oga Aquarium GAO keeps polar bears, seals, and fish from the Sea of Japan.

Its large tank recreates the coastal waters of the peninsula, and its polar bears are popular with families.

Kakunodate and Lake Tazawa

Kakunodate, about an hour from the city by Komachi Shinkansen, is one of Japan’s finest samurai towns. Its wide streets are lined with black wooden fences, samurai houses, and weeping cherry trees that bloom in late April.

The samurai district’s houses include the Aoyagi and Ishiguro residences, both open to visitors.

Lake Tazawa, nearby, is the deepest lake in Japan at over four hundred metres. Its water is a vivid blue, and a golden statue of Tatsuko, a legendary maiden, stands on its shore.

Its depth means it never freezes, and the colour stays vivid even in winter. Roads circle the lake, with viewpoints and swimming beaches.

Nyuto Onsen, in the mountains above the lake, is a group of rustic hot spring inns. Tsurunoyu, the oldest, has thatched buildings and a milky outdoor bath. Staying overnight is a highlight of a trip to the prefecture.

Seven inns make up the group, and a bath pass lets visitors try several of them. Buses run from Tazawako Station.

Winter Festivals

Akita’s winters bring unique festivals. In Yokote, the Kamakura festival in February sees snow huts built across the town, each with a small altar inside. Children invite visitors in for rice cakes and sweet sake.

The huts glow with candlelight in the evening, and miniature kamakura line the riverbanks.

In Misato, the Kariwano Tsunahiki is a giant tug-of-war. In Kakunodate, the Hiburi Kamakura festival sees people swing burning straw bales around their heads to ward off evil.

The Namahage Sedo Festival on the Oga Peninsula, held in February, combines a Shinto ritual with dramatic Namahage performances in the snow.

A Day in Akita

Start at Senshu Park in the morning, climbing to the Osumi Yagura for views. Visit the Akita Museum of Art and Fujita’s mural.

Morning light makes the park and the moat especially pleasant, and the paths are quiet.

For lunch, try inaniwa udon. In the afternoon, visit the Kanto Festival Folk Museum and try lifting a kanto. Then tour a sake brewery.

In the evening, head to Kawabata-dori for kiritanpo hot pot and local sake.

Halal, Vegetarian and Dietary Needs

Kiritanpo hot pot uses chicken broth. Inaniwa udon dipping sauce often contains fish stock. Ask about ingredients. Vegetarian travellers may find grilled kiritanpo with miso and vegetable dishes.

Shopping and Souvenirs

Akita sake, kiritanpo kits, inaniwa udon, iburigakko and Akita cedar crafts make good souvenirs. Kabazaiku, cherry bark crafts from Kakunodate, are elegant gifts. Namahage masks and figures are popular.

Department stores near the station have large food halls with local products, and many shops will ship purchases within Japan.

Northern Highlights

Odate, in the north of the prefecture, is the home of the Akita dog and of kiritanpo. The Akita Dog Visitor Center near Odate Station has dogs on display at set times and exhibits on the breed’s history.

A statue of Hachiko stands outside Odate Station, mirroring the famous one in Tokyo.

The Oyu Stone Circles, near Kazuno, are two large Jomon stone circles about four thousand years old. They are part of the World Heritage listing for the Jomon Prehistoric Sites in Northern Japan. A museum explains their purpose, which may have been linked to rituals and the seasons.

Towada-Hachimantai National Park straddles the prefecture’s northeast. Its hot springs, marshes, and volcanic landscapes are popular for hiking and bathing.

Southern Highlights

Yuzawa, in the south, is the home of inaniwa udon and has several sake breweries. Its Tanabata festival features lanterns painted with beautiful women.

Several noodle makers offer tastings and demonstrations of hand-stretching.

Omagari, in Daisen, hosts the National Fireworks Competition each August. Fireworks makers from across Japan compete, and the event draws huge crowds. Daytime fireworks, a rare tradition, are part of the competition.

Accommodation in the area is limited, so many visitors come from the city or further away by special trains.

Mount Chokai, on the border with Yamagata, is a volcano rising from the sea. Its summit offers views of the Sea of Japan, and the area has waterfalls, wetlands, and the Mototaki spring-fed falls.

Climbers can reach the summit in a long day from the trailhead, and the mountain’s snow lingers into summer.

The Sea of Japan Coast

The city faces the Sea of Japan, and the coast stretches north and south. Sunsets over the sea are beautiful in summer.

Hatahata, sandfish, arrive in large numbers in early winter, a seasonal event celebrated locally. They are grilled, cooked in hot pot, or fermented into shottsuru.

Their arrival often coincides with thunderstorms, and locals call them the thunder fish. Their roe is prized.

Seasons

Spring brings cherry blossoms in late April. Summer is warm, with the Kanto Festival. Autumn is colourful. Winter is snowy, especially inland.

The coast is milder than the mountains, but winds from the sea can make winter feel cold. Inland areas such as Yokote receive heavy snow.

Where to Stay

Hotels cluster near the station and Kawabata-dori.

Hot spring inns are found at Nyuto, Tamagawa, and along the coast.

Day Trips

Kakunodate is a samurai town with weeping cherry trees. Lake Tazawa is the deepest lake in Japan. Nyuto Onsen has rustic inns with milky water.

The Oga Peninsula has coastal scenery and the Namahage. Yokote holds the Kamakura snow hut festival in February. Omagari hosts a national fireworks competition in late summer.

Safety

The city is safe. Check your government’s advice for Japan.

Bear sightings have increased across the prefecture in recent years, including near towns. Follow local warnings and advice, especially in rural areas and forests.

Carry a bear bell in the countryside, avoid walking alone at dawn and dusk in forested areas, and check local news for warnings.

Frequently Asked Questions