Experience Dai-Chochin Matsuri at Suwa Shrine
One of the brightest and most beautiful festivals in Japan is the Dai-Chochin Matsuri (Giant Lantern Festival), also known as the Suwa Shrine Lantern Festival. The event takes place at the Suwa Shrine, Isshiki, Aichi Prefecture on the 26th and 27th of August.
A highlight of the festival is the appearance of giant paper lanterns called “chochin”. Chochin are generally cylindrical lanterns made paper or silk.
Washi
Washi paper is used to make chochin lanterns, the same type of paper used for many traditional Japanese arts and crafts such as origami, shodo, sumi-e, and ikebana. The paper is commonly made from either the gampi tree, mitsumata shrub, or the paper mulberry, but there are also some made from rice, wheat, and hemp.
In modern times, chochin lanterns have bulbs inside them to produce light, but some still use candles. These lanterns also have a spiralling cane bamboo frame that enables them to collapse into something like a basket for easy transport. When these lanterns are damaged, they are usually repaired due to the Japanese culture of not discarding what can be fixed.
Suwa Taisha Shrine
Chochin lanterns can be found in many festivals all over Japan, but very few of them can rival the sizes seen in the Suwa Shrine Lantern Festival.
The festival has 12 giant chochin lanterns measuring 30 feet high and around 18 feet across. Three huge pillars support the lanterns when they are pulled into place by pulleys. The lanterns in the Suwa Festival use candles that are as long as 1 meter. The lanterns for the festival are known for having colorful images which are a combination of Chinese characters and illustrations that depict various stories.