Sounkyo Ice Waterfall Festival was added to Your Favorites!
Daisetsuzan NP, Hokkaido
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For its 50th edition in 2025, builders made the castle-shaped centerpiece contain a 50-meter tunnel—a wonderfully literal birthday measure. Icicles lined the walk-through passage.
Sounkyo's festival began in 1976 when local shopping-district youths invited sculptor Toshihiro Takenaka to bring his sprayed-water, frozen-tree art to town. The first event was called Juhyo Matsuri; it became Hyobaku from year 2.
These ice forms are grown more than carved: crews assemble log frameworks, spray filtered Ishikari River water from December, and let icicles build for about 1½ months. Chainsaws cut paths and stairs, but finished surfaces are generally left untouched.
The festival's ice bar serves sake from Kamikawa Taisetsu Brewery inside an ice-built room, with ice chairs and tables. It turns a local tasting into the rare pleasure of sipping Hokkaido sake surrounded by the material that made the room.
At the Hyobaku Shrine, the local custom is to press your offering coin onto the ice deity rather than drop it in a box. The festival's official guide even calls this coin-sticking ritual “Hyobaku style.”
A documented festival performance featured 5 Ainu women dancing Tsuru no Mai (“Crane Dance”). Performers described learning through family; one said her daughter began dancing almost as soon as she could walk.
The festival's 2026 map gives its centerpiece a mountain-sized local identity: the main ice sculpture is modeled on Mt. Kurodake. A tunnel runs through it, with icicles hanging overhead.
The festival was named a Japan Night View Heritage site in 2018, one of 5 additions that year to the “light-up nightscape” category. The recognition is specifically for the illuminated ice festival.
Not every moving image at the festival is made by wind or flame: an interactive digital-art feature changes as visitors move, turning the frozen venue into a responsive display.
