Echizen Asakura Mantouya 2026 was held over two evenings, on Saturday 22 and Sunday 23 August, and welcomed around 30,000 visitors. Our sincere thanks to everyone who came, and to everyone who helped make it happen.
Ichijodani is the site of the castle town from which the Asakura clan governed Echizen Province for five generations, 103 years. It burned down in 1573 and lay buried for four centuries. Now excavated, the town comes back once a year in candlelight.
A valley full of light
Seen from above, the candles trace a geometric pattern. Nothing here was arranged at random: each line follows a street or a house plot revealed by excavation. Follow the light and you are following the paths people walked five hundred years ago.
The Asakura residence site from above. The candles follow the house plots revealed by excavation, and among them stands Asakura Yumemaru, the mascot of the city of Fukui.
Below the Suwayakata garden, candles spelled out a single character, 望 (nozomi, hope) — for the World Heritage inscription we are working towards, and for everyone affected by the Kumamoto earthquake and the floods in Ishikawa.
The path of light
Along the foot of the mountain, the candles run in a single line. It is a view you can only take in at walking pace, and photographs only carry part of it.
Every candle lit by hand
All 15,000 candles are lit by hand. Residents of the seven Asuwa districts, the organising committee, and volunteers — many of them high school students — set each candle upright and light it in the hours before dark.
The cups carry messages written by local schoolchildren and by visitors. May everyone be well. May my family stay healthy. Reading them one by one, it is easy to feel that this valley has always been a place of prayer.
The Karamon gate and the Asakura residence garden
The Karamon gate carries the Asakura family crest, the mitsumori mokko, on its purple curtain and on the lanterns at either side. Through the gate, on the site of the Asakura residence, people from the Togo district drew Asakura Yumemaru, the mascot of the city of Fukui, in candlelight.
Candles were also set through the garden of the Asakura residence. Light seeps between the stones around the pond and across the slope, and the garden takes on a face quite unlike its daytime one.
To everyone who helped
These two evenings rest on a great many pairs of hands: residents of the seven Asuwa districts, the people who directed traffic at each car park, volunteers from the chamber of commerce, the post office and the Fukui city staff, those who travelled in from other prefectures, and all the performers who filled the stage.
Fifty-eight volunteers, high school students and members of the public, worked with us. Thank you for the preparation in the heat, and for staying to clear up afterwards.
Our volunteers. We hope to see you again next year.
Watch it again
For those who could not come in person, both evenings were streamed live on YouTube and on X. The YouTube streams were watched 1,263 times across the two nights, and the X streams 2,985 times. A good number of people watched on a television screen, and we are glad the evening reached those who were far away.
The recordings are still available, including the fireworks and the erhu and kokarina performances.
Next year
Echizen Asakura Mantouya 2027 is planned for Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 August 2027. Please note that this is one week earlier than the last weekend of August, where the event usually falls. Further details will be announced on this website as they are decided.
The candles burn out in a single night, but the four hundred years this valley holds do not. We hope to see you here again next year.
For lost property enquiries, please contact the Asakura Clan Ruins Preservation Association on 0776-41-2330.