Yamagata Hanagasa Matsuri Flower Hat Festival Opens with 3,800 Dancers Parading; Traditional 3-Day Event Runs through Thursday

About 3,800 kimono-clad dancers holding hanagasa hats decorated with safflowers, the flower of Yamagata Prefecture, parade down a main street in Yamagata City with traditional shouts of “Yassho, makasho.” Yamagata Hanagasa Matsuri, the prefecture’s foremost summer festival, kicked off with a traditional dance parade in central Yamagata on Tuesday. More than 10,000 dancers from 147 dance groups in total are to take part in the three-day festival that continues through Thursday.