This festival tells you that spring has come. The people pray for business prosperity and rich harvest to the Ariko-yama shrine which is the god of harvests.
There are over 200 street stalls in the castle town. Tens of thousands of people visit every year.

About a million tulips are blooming all over the field. On a jumbo flower bed, there is flower art using over hundred thousand. The visitors enjoy themselves here.

This is a night festival in mid-summer . The performance of laser and fireworks which are launched from boats, is fascinating. You can send a message to the people you love through the fireworks

Toyooka Yanagi festival is for Prince Yanagi, who is the guardian of bags industry. On the first day, about 60 groups, 3000 people including kids and adults are dancing the Toyooka dance. They say “Ara Yaccha Yacchya” with the rhythm . On the second day, we have the big fireworks display. At this display, about 2000 fireworks are lighting up the night sky with beautiful colors.

This festival has started to make the airport a Mecca for sky sports. Small airplanes, helicopters, motor gliders, and more flying machines gather. You can see marvelous acrobatic flights and demonstration flights.

About 4,000 people gathering for the 5km, 10km, and half-marathon races at Kannabe Kogen. About 1,000 citizen staff provides hearty services and events to the runners to give them the wonderful memories which can be taken back to their homes.

The meaning of this festival is playing to vigor of Kinosaki, and the hot spring gushing out forever. The climax of this festival is the competition of the portable shrine, the guard car of the portable shrine, and the big Danjiri. This competition provides deep impression and excitement.

This festival is symbolic to Izushi. The highlights of the festival are the “child's daimyo's precession” by one hundred costumed-children, and “adult's daimyo's precession with waving spears” by thirty costumed-adults. These traditional activities are telling the scene of “Sankin Kotai”. That is the tri-annual round trip to Edo from the area where the lord lives.

Takao Saito was elected as a member of the House of Representatives when he was 42 years old. He had been working as the minister of state and so on for 37 years. “ Japan is the constitutional monarchy, and we Japanese have to go forward this way, but some politicians are conspiring with the army to achieve the ambitions. I can't turn a blind eye to this.” he made the speech in the national assembly when the army had strong power. He is respected as the “god of constitutionalism” because he never was daunted by militarism.

Shiro Otagaki was the first president of The Kansai Electric Power co., inc. He led the construction of Kurobe Dam which is called the “Pyramid of the 20th century”. Construction cost was about 51.3 billion yen. In total about 10 million people had worked for 7 years to complete the dam. Unfortunately 171 people were killed in the construction.

Masao Akagi who was called the “god of soil erosion control, was the first man to expound the importance the control of soil erosion. “If you manage the country, manage the water. If you manage the water, manage the ground” he said. He carried out the control of soil erosion and the flood control. This built the base of the control of soil erosion technology. He made efforts to flood control and afforestation as well as establishing the control of soil erosion division in the engineering works bureau, achieving amending the flood control system, and building the control of soil erosion hall.

Naomi Uemura is well known as adventurer all over the world. He accomplished a lot of great undertakings , for example reaching the North Pole by himself with his dog sled, covering 12,000km of the Arctic Circle by himself with dogs sledge, reaching the summit of the highest peaks in 5 continents including Mt. Everest , and so on. His untiring efforts gave dreams and hopes to people all over the world. His challenging spirit lives on in this city.

Yoshio Toui had pursued the “Education of Life”. He was known as Pestalozzi of Japan. He had been a teacher for 40 years. He always aimed to be on the side of the child in education, he advocated the wonders of life, and expounded the “starting point of education”. A lot of people are still inspired by his speech.

He had been participating actively as the leading scholar of Kana calligraphy until his death at the age of 104. He created his own Kana style which went down to the history of calligraphy. He had worked at the Gakusyuin for many years, and coached to the Imperial Household. There are a lot of his works in the Kousei Nakata memorial hall. We hold the Kana calligraphy exhibition every year, and admire the his achievements.