Experience the charm of the region at a unique autumn festival

Autumn of fertility. In October, autumn festivals are held throughout the city to celebrate a rich harvest. We would like to introduce three festivals that are full of uniqueness.

The "Iizaka Kenka Festival" is an annual festival held at Iizaka Onsen's Yahata Shrine for three days, mainly on the first Saturday and Sunday of October. It is a heroic festival in which floats weighing several tons carried by young people collide with each other, and is considered one of Japan's three major fight festivals, along with Osaka's Kishiwada Danjiri Festival and Akita's Kakunodate Festival. The highlight is the climax, ''entering the shrine.'' Six food stalls rush into the temple grounds, violently colliding with each other.

The Matsukawa Chochin Festival, which is held on Saturdays and Sundays during the three-day weekend including Sports Day in October, is a festival that has been going on for about 60 years in Matsukawa-cho, Fukushima City. Thirteen floats, each lit with 300 to 350 lanterns, parade through the town while playing different musical accompaniments for each district.

The ''Okayama Water Festival'', which is held for three days before and after the fourth Sunday in October, is a ritual that has been held for more than 800 years at Kashima Shrine in Okajima, Fukushima City, and has been designated as an important intangible folk cultural property by the prefecture. Highlights include ''Mizukake,'' where the elders and young parishioners sprinkle water on each other, and ''Oke-iri,'' where men in the area who have been married for three years, and those who have been married for seven years, are placed in a vat with straw.

In addition, there will be events such as the Fukushima Inari Shrine Annual Festival and the Onami Sumiyoshi Shrine Three Lion Dance, so be sure to check them out.