Chichibu: Shrines, Spring Water, and Night Festival

Chichibu brings together two shrines with different connections to the waters of Mount Buko. It is also home to the main event of the Chichibu Night Festival on December 3 and textile culture in the surrounding community. These topics offer different ways to shape your trip: you can focus on shrines and spring water, plan your stay around the festival date, or include traditional textile crafts.

Shrines and Water from Mount Buko

Chichibu Shrine has a history stretching back approximately 2,100 years. It is associated with spring water that emerges at the surface as sacred underground water from Mount Buko, via the sacred site of Daijakukubo. It was included in the Japanese Ministry of the Environment’s list of the “100 Famous Waters of the Heisei Era.” Chichibu Shrine thus brings together a long history and an award for its associated spring water.

Underground water from Mount Buko also rises from the ground at the Ryujin Pond at Imamiya Shrine and feeds the pond. Unlike Chichibu Shrine, where the focus is on sacred spring water and its path via Daijakukubo, here the focus is on the pond and its water source. This gives you a concrete comparison: one shrine is connected to the mountain through an award-winning spring, while the other is connected through a pond fed by its underground water.

The Main Event of the Chichibu Night Festival

The main event of the Chichibu Night Festival takes place on December 3. During the event, kasahoko floats and festival floats weighing up to 20 tons are pulled up the steep Dangozaka slope. The weight and the incline give the event two defining features: the size of the floats and the uphill pull. If the festival is the deciding factor for your trip, December 3 is the key date. This lets you plan around the festival and distinguish it from a trip focused more on the shrines or textiles.

Chichibu Textiles and Meisen

In the surrounding community, the Chichibu Meisenkan is dedicated to Chichibu textiles and meisen. It collects, preserves, and exhibits materials of folkloric value, and also helps pass on traditional techniques. This means both the materials and the knowledge of the techniques are central. If you would like to consider textile culture as well as shrines and festival events, this offers a distinct focus for your travel interests.

Getting to Imamiya Shrine

Imamiya Shrine is about a 10-minute walk from Seibu-Chichibu Station on the Seibu Railway and about a 5-minute walk from Ohanabatake Station on the Chichibu Railway. In direct comparison, the approximate walking time from Ohanabatake is about half that from Seibu-Chichibu. Both distances offer practical guidance for planning a visit to Imamiya Shrine; the comparison shows how the two station connections differ in walking time.

Discover more destinations: Fujimi, Honjō, Kumagaya, Misato, Ranzan, Minano, Kawaguchi, Ogawa

Return to the regional travel guide: Saitama Prefecture.