Yamagata Hanagasa Festival
The is one of the four major Japanese festivals of the Tōhoku region. It is held in the capital city of Yamagata Prefecture, Yamagata. The "hanagasa" is a headpiece that is shaped like a flower and was traditionally dyed red from locally-grown safflower. History and organization. The Yamagata Hanagasa Matsuri is an annual summer festival that lasts from 5 August to 7 August. It was first celebrated in 1963 when the parade was a part of the Zaō Summer Festival as an event to attract tourists to Yamagata Prefecture. After some success the parade grew over  time into one of the four major festivals of the Tōhoku region. Ten thousand dancers dance to the "Hanagasa Ondo" song in the parade. The song's creation is attributed to workers who were constructing an embankment in 1919 along Lake Tokura in the city of Obanazawa in northeastern Yamagata Prefecture. The song was created as workers compacted dirt into the embankment, they would rhythmically chant "yassho" followed with a response "makasho". Following the completion of the embankment, the community that built it held a parade where they all wore sedge hats that were dyed red with safflower, a crop  of the region. These red sedge hats, called "hanagasa" became the focal point of the parade. While the Hanagasa festival is still held in smaller towns and cities throughout the prefecture, including Obanazawa, the largest festival takes place in the city of Yamagata, where its parade follows the city's main street, National Route 112, in the Honcho district.