At about 6pm we bundled up and headed to the waterfront (the red bridge along the river) to see the winter matsuri. Kakunodate is known for the fire element of their winter matsuri (festival). We walked to the bridge, and even from a block away we could see the warm glow of the bonfires lit along the river. We crossed partially over the bridge to get a good vantage point of the fires along the water.

There was a giant fire pit formed in the snow and people were taking turns lighting what I can only describe as baskets made of reeds on a cord (looked a lot like a lobster cage) and then swinging the flaming cages around their heads in circles until the flames crept up the rope and threatened to burn their hands.

It was snowing heavily which seemed the perfect setting for a fire and snow festival. We captured a lot of video of various people spinning and twirling the fire and then we moved on to a secondary fire a bit further down the river. When we arrived at the next fire we climbed down the embankment (with its metre high snow) to get a closer look at the action.

An older man was making a huge dramatic presentation of his fire throwing with lots of dramatic sounds which had the crowd laughing. At the end of his fire performance he did a little pose and the crowd cheered and clapped. We also watched a man spinning fire with his girlfriend clinging to him, clearly she had been roped into it and didn’t want to take part. He gave her the rope so they could swing the flaming cage together and then he ran away, leaving her alone swinging the fire. She was terrified and clearly annoyed, but it was funny for everyone else. 

Next we walked to the park where another fire was. Along the way we saw some impressive fireworks. Kids were sliding down the hills to the waterfront, it was a really electric atmosphere, and great to be a part of.

We walked through the old samurai district looking at the tiny kamakuras (snow lanterns) along the way, lit up with candles. The fire in the park was a bit less lively, however we could get a lot closer to the fire pits and the fire seemed more dramatic when people swung their “baskets”. We watched a few foreigners try swinging fire, it was a bit terrifying. We then headed back to our airbnb and packed up our stuff so that we could leave by 10am the next morning to head to Nyuto Onsen (Taenoyu).