Tottori Shan-shan Festival

The Tottori Shan-shan Festival is a summer festival held in the city of Tottori. The Shan-shan Festival came about by combining a number of annual festival events held at local shrines with the city’s traditional Inaba umbrella dances. At the heart of the festival is the issei dance, where several thousand dancers holding umbrellas dance throughout the city center. The festival takes its name from the bells attached to the umbrellas that are said to ring out with a shan-shan sound, as well as the bubbling shan-shan of the hot spring waters of Tottori Onsen in front of Tottori Station. The festival has reached more than 200,000 sightseers, making it the largest festival in Tottori City. More than 4,000 participants take part in the issei dance in 100 teams, and in 2014, the Guinness Book of World Records recognized it as the largest umbrella dance in the world.