A traditional festival with beautiful parade floats and mechanized puppets

The Tahara Festival is known far and wide for its ornate festival floats with mechanized puppets atop, and is said to have started during the Edo period.
Three floats and their mechanized puppets go on parade together with elegantly decorated portable shrines, while at night, children on the floats perform dances with elaborate hand movements for the crowd.
The Five-Town Fireworks mark the grand finale. Featuring handheld cannons from which brave young men shoot fire and sparks into the sky, airborne fireworks painting the night sky, as well as mechanized varieties, this amazing fireworks display is the largest in the Atsumi Peninsula, on which the city of Tahara lies. The best places to watch are along the Shio River or at Hananoki Square.