Hida: Festival Traditions and a Historic Townscape

Hida-Furukawa combines a historic townscape with living traditions and experiences that vary with the time of year. White-plastered storehouses line Seto Canal and Shirakabe Dozogai Street; from April to November, koi are part of the canal’s scenery. Other highlights include a major spring festival, a January tradition dating back more than 200 years, and opportunities to explore herbs, regional specialities and crafts. When choosing your holiday rental in Hida, it’s worth first considering which of these aspects interests you most.

Festivals with set dates

The Furukawa Festival takes place every year on 19 and 20 April in Hida Furukawa. Its events include Okoshi-Daiko and festival floats. These events are designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property of Japan and inscribed as UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage. If you’re interested in the festivals, you can plan your visit around these two days in April. The Hida Furukawa Festival Hall offers a chance to experience the Furukawa Festival throughout the year—another way to explore this tradition outside the festival dates.

Another tradition is Santera Mairi. It has been held in Furukawa for more than 200 years and takes place on the evening of 15 January. Participants visit Enkoji, Shinshuji and Honkoji. Its fixed January date differs markedly from the April dates of the Furukawa Festival: if you want to plan your trip around a particular tradition, these dates are an important starting point.

The canal, the seasons and the townscape

White-plastered storehouses meet a historic townscape along Seto Canal and Shirakabe Dozogai Street. Koi can be seen there from April to November, and visitors can feed the fish at Seto Canal. At other times of year, the surroundings take on a different character: fresh greenery defines spring, the sound of water is a feature of summer, autumn leaves stand out in fall, and snowy scenery is part of the winter landscape. If you’re also considering the time of year when choosing accommodation, you can decide whether you’d like to experience Hida-Furukawa amid spring greenery, during koi season, among the autumn leaves or in its winter setting.

Tastings and hands-on experiences

Hida Mori no Megumi offers the chance to blend herbs into your own herbal tea, as well as herbal tea tastings. You can both create your own blend and sample the tea. At Okadaya, Hida fast-food specialities include Mitarashi Dango, skewers of Hida beef and Gohei-Mochi. Watanabe Sake Brewery also offers tastings. If you’re travelling with varied interests, you can choose according to your tastes—whether you’d like to focus on herbal tea, savoury and sweet local foods, or sake.

Crafts and creative experiences

FabCafe Hida is housed in a converted traditional building more than 100 years old. It has a café and creative workspace, as well as 3D printers and laser cutters. Visitors can make their own chopsticks. This combines a stay in an older building with a practical, modern activity. Creative work with modern equipment sits alongside the town’s historic traditions and seasonal scenery. As you plan your trip, you can weigh up whether to focus on a festival, the canal, regional tastings or a creative activity.

You can also factor travel into your choice of location: Hida Furukawa is accessible by train from Takayama City. The journey from Takayama Station to Hida Furukawa Station on the Takayama Line takes about 15 minutes.

Discover more places

For further searches, you can also explore the pages for Nakatsugawa, Ōgaki, Gero, Shirakawa, Yamagata, Takayama, Gifu and Minokamo.

For an overview of travel in the wider area: Gifu Prefecture.