Shizuoka Marks Tea Season with Kanaya Festival

The Yomiuri Shimbun

12:51 JST, April 30, 2025

SHIMADA, Shizuoka — A long-standing tradition celebrating the region’s famed tea harvest took place in mid-April as the Kanaya tea festival showcasing a tea-picking women’s group dance drew crowds to JR Kanaya Station in Shimada, Shizuoka Prefecture.

The biennial festival was held on April 12 in the city known as a major tea production region.

The dance, featuring about 500 women and girls dressed in tea-picking attire, filled the streets and captivated the audience.

Organized by the Kanaya tea festival preservation and promotion association, the festival, which began in 1952 and was held for the 41st time, featured women of all ages dancing gracefully to the folk song “Chakkiri Bushi.”

They wore tea-picking costumes featuring kasuri checker-like pattern kimonos, red tasuki sashes and “anesan-kaburi” head coverings, a style of headdress using tenugui hand towels.

The festival was originally scheduled to continue on April 13 but was canceled due to forecast rain.