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Most fireworks in Japan are huge. You go early, you sit for hours, and you leave in a crowd of thousands.
This one is not like that. The fireworks at Kantan Port Park in Nishi-Oita last about ten minutes. You can arrive late, sit on the grass, and walk to the station afterwards without queueing. For me that made it better, not worse.
An old festival, not a modern one
The fireworks are part of Hama no Ichi (浜の市), the mid-autumn festival of Yusuhara Hachimangu shrine. It is much older than it looks.
In the Edo period this was one of the three great markets of western Japan, and the biggest event of the Funai castle town — which is the old name for central Oita. People came to trade, not to watch fireworks.
The festival still runs for several days. In 2026 it was 17–22 September, with shrine rituals, kagura dancing and a doll-painting workshop across the week. The fireworks are only one evening of it.
They are called hōnō hanabi — dedication fireworks. They are an offering to the shrine. That is why they are short.
Getting there
This is the easiest part, and the reason I would go again.
- JR Nishi-Oita station, then about 3 minutes on foot
- No special shuttle, no long walk from a far car park
- Nishi-Oita is one stop from Oita station
If you have been to a big Japanese fireworks festival, you will know the walk back — thirty minutes of shuffling in a crowd. There is none of that here.
What the evening was like
I went on Sunday 20 September 2026.
The food festival in the park starts at 16:00 and runs to 20:30, so there are several hours before anything is launched. There were stalls, a music stage and a hula dance show. The food was spice-themed. I did not eat anything myself, so I cannot tell you if it was good — but the stalls were busy and the smell was everywhere.
We sat on the ground. There was no need to reserve a spot, no need to arrive at noon with a plastic sheet. It was not very crowded. That surprised me most.
At about half past seven the Sunflower ferry sailed, and the fireworks followed almost straight afterwards.
This is worth knowing even if you never come to the festival. The Sunflower is the overnight ship to Kobe, and it leaves every evening of the year from the terminal on the same quay — 19:20 Sunday to Thursday, 19:30 Friday and Saturday. You do not need a festival, a ticket or a plan. Any evening, walk down to the park and watch a ship the size of a building leave the harbour.
That night it sailed with the stalls behind us and the sea in front, and it is the part I remember more clearly than the fireworks.
The fireworks started just before 8pm and were over in about ten minutes.
If you go
- Do not plan your whole day around it. Ten minutes is ten minutes.
- Come for the evening instead. Arrive around 18:00, eat at the stalls, listen to the music, and treat the fireworks as the ending.
- You do not need to arrive early for a place. Just turn up.
- Take the train. Three minutes from Nishi-Oita, and you avoid parking entirely.
- Check the date each year. It moves with the festival, which falls in mid-to-late September.
- Or come on any other evening. The ferry sails at 19:20 or 19:30 whatever the date, and the park is free.
Why I would recommend it
Oita has bigger events. This one is small, local and short, and almost nobody writes about it in English.
If you live here, it is a quiet Sunday evening by the sea with food, music and a few minutes of fireworks over the water. If you are visiting, it is a chance to see a festival that is nearly four hundred years old doing something it has always done, without being one of ten thousand people doing it with you.
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