Omagari National Fireworks Competition
全国花火競技大会「大曲の花火」
Late August 2027
Daisen, Akita
The dates for this event have not been confirmed yet. They are an estimate from the event’s own pattern, and this page is updated as soon as the organiser announces the real ones — check the official site for the latest. Last held 29 August 2026.
Omagari is where Japan's fireworks makers come to be judged. The National Fireworks Competition, held on the fourth Saturday of August on the banks of the Omono River in the small city of Daisen, is the oldest and most respected contest in the country, and the makers who win here set the standard that every other festival follows. Each entrant fires a set programme of individual shells and a creative piece set to music, judged for colour, form, timing and originality.
It is the only major festival with a daytime competition. From 17:10 to 18:00, before the light goes, entrants fire shells designed for daylight, using coloured smoke and shaped bursts in place of light. The night competition follows from 19:00 to 21:30, and the difference between the two is a lesson in what fireworks can be. Arrive for the daytime opening; it is what makes Omagari unlike anywhere else.
Daisen has almost no accommodation and what exists is taken far ahead, so most visitors stay in Akita City or Morioka and use the extra trains laid on for the night, though the return journey is long and crowded. Paid seating on the riverbank is sold in advance and free viewing fills early in the day. Late August in Akita can be hot by day and cool by the river after dark. Expect a quiet, attentive crowd, many of them fireworks connoisseurs, and an evening that is more like a concert than a party.