Nagaoka Grand Fireworks Festival (長岡まつり大花火大会) 長岡まつり大花火大会
At 22:30 on 1 August, the hour of the 1945 bombing, three white shakudama go up.
The festival began as a ‘reconstruction festival’ on 1 August 1946, a year after the bombing that destroyed 80% of central Nagaoka and killed 1,489 people: since then, every year, it has paired the memory of that night with the rebirth of the city. On the evening of 1 August, at 22:30, three all-white shakudama commemorate the victims; on 2 and 3 August the fireworks include the sanjaku-dama (91 cm in diameter) and the Phoenix, created in 2004 to pray for reconstruction after the Chūetsu earthquake of 23 October that year and to give thanks for the support received from all over Japan: golden phoenixes about 2 km wide, launched at 20:45 on both evenings.
Niigata
Nagaoka
