For the first time in three years, Gongendo Park in Satte City will have a red spider lily “higanbana” festival. In both 2020 and 2021, the Higanbana festival in Satte’s Gongendo Park was cancelled on account of the pandemic. The other large spider lily festivals in Saitama, such as at Kinchakuda, were also cancelled. In 2021 Gongendo Park cancelled the spider lily festival in advance, but they had planned to open the park to the public during the spider lily bloom period. In fact, in early September they started posting updates with photos of the condition of the spider lilies. However, on September 15th they removed all those photos with a note requesting that people refrain from visiting the park to see the spider lilies.
For the record in 2021 the park was opened for all other seasonal blooms – for example, daffodils, cherry blossoms and hydrangea. Moreover, in 2022, they have remained open throughout the seasons. Right now as I update this post on August 12th 2022, the 100,000 sunflowers are in full bloom and open to the public. Update: I visited on September 27th (picture below) and there is one large section still in full bloom, but on there are also two large sections were they are passed their prime. While they will probably last a few days, unfortunately I doubt they will look as good on the weekend.
Satte Higanbana Festival
There are over THREE MILLION red spider lilies in the #4 park of Gongendo Park, Satte. In a usual year, the Satte Higanbana (Red Spider Lily) Festival starts mid September in Gongendo Park in Satte. In 2022, they are planning for the festival to be on between Saturday September 17th and Sunday October 2nd. During that period there will be live music on select dates (weekends). For example, Kakkun will perform twice on Saturday September 24th at noon and again 1 pm.
The Higanbana in Gongendo park are quite famous, probably the second best known spider lily spot in Saitama Prefecture. The best known being Kinchakuda in Hidaka. Kinchakuda will also have a red spider lily festival in 2022, for the first time in three years. Apart from red spider lilies, Gongendo Park is also famous for cherry blossoms and rapeseed flowers in Spring.
Normally you can picnic in the park. There are benches. And a little shop too. In addition, there is also a tourist information area. They have a playground in the park, but in a completely different section to the flowers (see park details here), and it is a good 30 minute walk. However, there are some goats that kids (pun not intended!) can interact with, near the flowers.
In a regular year the Satte spider lilies bloom from about the week before the festival starts, with prime viewing usually falling bang smack as the festival begins. Of course, Mother Nature can effect the bloom of the flowers. In the last couple of years, the spider lilies have been early to start blooming. Update: the flowers are at about 70% since September 19th.
Information
Satte Higanbana Festival 2022
Date: September 17th to October 2nd
Time: Not specified. The park is open from 8.30 am to 7 pm until the end of September and until 5 pm from October.
Location: Satte Gongendo #4 Park, 権現堂公園 ４号公園, 822 Uchigouma, Satte, Saitama 340-0103. View on Google Maps or see the map at the bottom of the post.
Satte Higanbana Festival Access
The park is a ten minute drive from the Satte Interchange on Ken-O expressway. It is also about 20 minutes from the Kuki Interchange of the Tohoku Expressway. There is free parking available from 8.30 am to 7 pm until the end of September and to 5 pm from October.
It only takes about 45 minutes from Kita-Senju Station or an hour from Asakusa Station in Tokyo to Satte Station. From there, you need to take a shuttle bus to the park from the station. It costs 180 yen one way. However, the shuttle bus may not be available due to the pandemic. They should release that information early September. You can walk, but it takes at least 30 minutes on foot from the station.
Official notification of intention to hold the festival in 2022
Other annual events in Gongendo Park
- Daffodil festival in January and February
- Cherry Blossom Festival in March and April
- Hydrangea festival in June
First posted in 2016, last republish August 2022. 20160702?