Grab your shamoji rice paddles and join the fun!

The Kinnyamonya Festival first began back in 1996 and is held every last Saturday of August on Nakanoshima Island, Ama Town, at the Hishiura port. It is truly a festival that brings people together because every year, not only the locals but people from other cities like Tokyo also come and join the dance parade, which is the highlight of the festival.

Despite being an island with only around 2,400 residents, the Kinnyamonya dance parade alone already has more than 1,000 people participating every year. With its uniqueness of using rice spoons (しゃもじ shamoji) held in both hands to dance and clap with. The festival began in the hope that people would cherish their roots and traditions, and that it would bond people together. Everyone dresses up in colourful haori (a jacket that is usually worn on top of Japanese traditional clothes, kimono) while joyfully dancing to a folk song, Kinnyamonya-bushi.

You can buy and have your own rice spoons from Ama Town too, they are available for sale at the souvenir store on the first floor of Kinnyamonya Centre. Using it to practice your dance for the next year or using it to scoop the rice is also right either way!

For food lovers, the festival just couldn’t get any better! The Hishura port parking lot, which on the day of the festival is turned into a festive dancing street, is also turned into a yatai road (food stand), filled with food that is made by the local people. This is one of the only chances for you to try many foods made by the locals in one place, at the same time.

At night time, after the Kinnyanonya parade, where the excitement comes to its finale in a very grand way,  you can enjoy watching the fireworks as a closing ceremony and feel the summer night’s breeze on this remote island relieving all of your stress.