Mashiko Autumn Pottery Fair (益子陶器市)
Since 1966, over 600 tents and 50 shops line Mashiko's pottery-village streets each autumn, letting visitors buy Mashiko-yaki directly from resident kiln masters and compare glazes from persimmon-orange to deep cobalt.
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"Fourteen zelkova-wood floats bearing four-metre Edo-period dolls parade through Sawara's lantern-lit canal streets to the strains of Sawara Bayashi, one of Japan's three great festival musics, in a UNESCO-listed autumn custom with 300 years of history."
Sawara Grand Festival (Autumn)
"Twenty-seven hand-carved wooden yatai floats, designated a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage and a Japanese Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property, parade to Imamiya Shrine with taiko drumming and traditional dance before a dramatic night-time butsuke clash."
Kanuma Buttsuke Aki Matsuri (鹿沼今宮神社祭の屋台行事)
"Dating to the Kennin era (1201-1204), this lantern-rubbing procession recreates the Seven-Villages Pilgrimage in which the deity of Nogi Shrine tours seven parish communities by night, with parishioners pressing paper lanterns together to receive divine protection."
Nogi Shrine Toro-Migaki Matsuri (野木神社ほたる祭り / 提灯擦り祭り)
"At Komarusan Horinji Temple, home of Japan's largest Tengu mask, a Sarutahiko deity in full Tengu regalia leads a rare Shinto-Buddhist syncretic mikoshi procession through cedar forest, accompanied by Tochigi-designated performing arts Sanbaso and Ebisu Daikoku Mai."
Komarusan Grand Festival (高原山大祭)
"On New Year's Eve at Oiwa-san Bishamonten temple, pilgrims guided by conch-blowing Shugendo priests shout insults such as Bakayaro all the way up the mountain path to ward off the year's misfortunes, in an Edo-period ritual unique to this hillside temple."
Akutai Matsuri (悪態まつり) at Oiwa-san Bishamonten
"Every August, hundreds of women shoulder Japan's largest portable shrine, a 400-kilogram Dai-tengu goblin mikoshi, through the mountain town of Numata alongside 30 to 40 smaller omikoshi, all to the roar of festival taiko."
Numata Tengu Festival (沼田まつり)