Jul 20, 2014 - 1 min read

Lights in the Moat at Fukui Castle

Annual summer illumination festival in Fukui city

By Takako Sakamoto

Community writer

Lanterns line the walkway on the castle grounds

This lantern placed on the castle bridge says this is 'Togo Way'. Togo...the famous Marshal-Admiral Marquis Toge Heihachiro? Why? I have to check it out!

The statue of the first lord of Fukui Han (domain), Yuki Hideyasu, looks different tonight under the warm lights of the lanterns

The pattern of lights must mean something, but unless it's viewed from high above it's hard to decipher

This one is easy; 願 means prayer or hope!

A jazz concert was held in front of the prefectural government office inside the castle ruins. The usually-intimidating office building looks completely different tonight

The band performed standard jazz numbers such as 'Night and Day', 'Stardust', etc. It was a great jazzy night in a cool breeze!

This one was unique. It looked like lined-up small stone shrines from afar, but when I got closer, they turned out to be the piled-up concrete blocks. Nice idea by students of Fukui University of Technology!

Walking to the covered wooden bridge of Fukui Castle

Fish (?) drawn on the surface of the lantern. It looks as though it's made of paper, but actually it's made of plastics (I knocked it to check!) and just on the surface either genuine Washi (Japanese paper) or artificial Washi are used

Floating in the moat, they looked really beautiful, but it turned out the lanterns were made of empty pet-bottles...how environment-friendly!

The signage of 'Lights in the Moat at Fukui Castle Ruins'

On the other side of the castle ruins a local pop band was playing

Beautiful western lady enjoying the band's performance wearing Yukata (summer casual kimono) with unique patterns

Traditional-looking Yatai (food stand) adds taste to the early-summer festival

At Fukui Castle Ruins an illumination event called 'Lights in the Moat' has been held in early summer for four years now. Although I've been living in Fukui for four years, I hadn't known, and I visited the event for the first time. I've seen the illuminated castle grounds a few times during cherry blossom season in spring, but this was quite different. There were many people there, but as this is Fukui, one of the most unpopulated cities of Japan, the crowd was not really a crowd, just more people than usual, so I never felt uncomfortable. There was a jazz band playing nice standard jazz numbers in front of the prefectural government office building, and everything looked different from the castle ruins I'd known. Great way of enjoying one summer night in Fukui!