"Setouchi Triennale" Island Contemporary Art Festival (Kagawa) & "Niihama Taiko Festival" Golden Float Pageant (Ehime)

Schedule: Musim Semi, Musim Panas & Musim Gugur (100 Hari setiap 3 Tahun untuk Setouchi Triennale) & 16–18 Oktober setiap Tahun (Niihama Taiko) | Location: Kagawa & Ehime (香川県・愛媛県)

Launched in 2010 under the visionary theme *"Restoration of the Sea"* (*Umi no Fukken*) to revitalize aging, depopulated island communities across the Seto Inland Sea, the **Setouchi Triennale** (*Setouchi International Art Festival*) has grown into one of the world's premier contemporary art festivals. Spanning roughly 100 days across Spring, Summer, and Autumn sessions with its main maritime hub at Takamatsu Port in Kagawa Prefecture, the festival transforms 12 islands—including **Naoshima, Teshima, Megijima, Ogijima, Shodoshima, Oshima, and Inujima**—into open-air art sanctuaries. Armed with an official festival passport, travelers hop between islands by ferry to experience hundreds of site-specific installations housed inside repurposed fishing cottages and village schools, alongside permanent architectural marvels such as the pillar-free, water-droplet-shaped **Teshima Art Museum** designed by Ryue Nishizawa and artist Rei Naito. While Kagawa captivates visitors with meditative island aesthetics, Niihama City in eastern Ehime Prefecture—historically prosperous from the centuries-old Besshi Copper Mine—erupts every October 16–18 with the thunderous **Niihama Taiko Festival**, celebrated alongside Tokushima's Awa Odori and Kochi's Yosakoi as one of **Shikoku's Three Great Festivals** (*Shikoku Sandai Matsuri*). Over three autumn days, more than 50 colossal portable drum floats known as **Taikodai** parade through the city to the earth-shaking rhythm of internal taiko drums and roaring chants of *"Sorya! Sorya!"* Each *Taikodai* stands 5.5 meters tall, stretches 12 meters long, and weighs nearly **3 tons**, draped in opulent scarlet velvet curtains (**Kazarimaku**) adorned with three-dimensional gold-and-silver thread embroidery depicting coiling dragons, tigers, and mythical castles. The festival's breathtaking climax is the **Kakikurabe** performance (held before tens of thousands of spectators at Yamane Ground on October 17 and at Ikku Shrine), where teams of 150 bearers (*Kakifu*) remove the transport wheels, hoist the 3-ton golden behemoth onto their shoulders, and press it straight overhead with extended arms (**Sashiage**) in a supreme display of collective strength.