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Konosu Bikkuri Hina Matsuri

Little knownBarely documented in English. This is the kind of place the site exists for.

Researched and written by Hinato

hina matsuriKonosudoll pyramiddoll townFebruary

Photo: KQuhen / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0) · original

Konosu Bikkuri Hina Matsuri draws a crowd, and that crowd is part of what you're actually there to see.

Konosu has made hina dolls for around 380 years and calls itself doll town, so when the local trade wanted to do something about declining sales it built the tallest pyramid of hina dolls in Japan: 31 tiers, about seven metres high, filling the atrium of a shopping centre next to the station. It is called the surprise doll festival, and the name is fair.

The display is made largely of dolls donated by households that no longer had room for them, which is a quieter story than the height. Satellite pyramids go up around the city in different geometries — hexagonal, octagonal, a three-sided one — in community halls and a sports arena, connected by a free shuttle bus. It runs for roughly two and a half weeks from mid or late February.

Before you go

Event hours

Varies by venue — confirm before visiting

Closed: Annual event only — roughly two and a half weeks from mid or late February; confirm the current year's dates with the city

Cost to attend

Free to view at the main venue | Free shuttle bus between satellite venues

When it happens

Mid or late February to early March, on the festival dates

Time to allow

1 hour for the main venue; half a day with the satellite venues

Access route

Access notes

Main venue at Elumi Konosu shopping centre, Honcho 1-2-1, Konosu City, immediately by Konosu Station on the JR Takasaki Line. Free to view at the main venue. Satellite pyramids stand at Hina-no-Sato, Kaku-no-Sato, Cosmos Arena and Pansy House, linked by a free shuttle bus. Dates shift each year — confirm with the city before travelling.

Where to watch from

**The main pyramid is next to the station.** No transport needed if that is all you want. Thirty-one tiers in a shopping centre atrium and it takes ten minutes. **The satellites are the better part.** Different geometries in community buildings around the city, quieter, and with the local doll makers' work rather than the donated stock. The free shuttle links them. **Most of the dolls were given away by families.** Households with no room for a full set donate them, which is why the pyramid keeps growing and why the display carries more weight than a height record. **Confirm the dates.** They shift by several days each year and the final day closes early. **Konosu is also a flower town.** Japan's largest producer of flower seedlings, with a cosmos festival in October and a poppy field on the Arakawa floodplain in May said to be the largest in the country.

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