There are various different places you can see “hanachozu”, floating flowers or floral water fonts, in Kawagoe City. Until 2021, it was mainly Kawagoe Hachimangu, Saimyouji and Sunny Side Terrace. The latter two started a hanachozu contest in 2021 and for the second photo contest later that year, Ayanoka joined them. Fast forward to both spring and autumn 2023 and there are now TEN locations in the collaboration. For the spring contest, there was also a hanachozu stamp rally that an additional 12 locations, for a total of TWENTY TWO. There is no stamp rally for Autumn, but these locations generally have hanachozu. But, I’ve added a further eight places you can see hanachozu for a total of 30 Hanachozu locations in Kawagoe in this article.
Kawagoe Hanachozu
You are under no obligation to join in the photo contest, you can just use this post as a guide to where you can see hanachozu in Kawagoe City.
Autumn Photo Contest
The photo contest also starts on Sunday October 1st and runs until Sunday November 26th. All the previous hanachozu were run by Saimyouji Temple, but for the Autumn contest there is now an independent website for the event. In order to enter you need to follow nine of the ten participating location’s Instagram accounts. The only one you don’t have to follow is #8 JR Kawagoe Station, because they don’t have an Instagram account. When you upload a photo of the hanachozu to Instagram you need to tag it with both #川越花手水フォトコンテスト2023秋 “Kawagoe hanachouzu footo contesuto 2023 aki” AND #撮影場所{insert the name of the place from number 1 to 10, listed below} “satsue basho {}”.
List of locations
Those that have further information available in English are linked. Just click on the name of the location to be brought to a detailed post, with access etc. There is also a Google MyMap with all locations at the bottom of the post. For the Autumn contest, UNICUS is not participating as they did in Spring, but Yaoko Kawagoe Museum will participate for the first time.
The 10 official hanachozu of the Kawagoe Hanachozu Photo Contest:
- Saimyouji
- Kawagoe Hachimangu
- Ayanoka
- Sunny Side Terrace
- Mucadeya
Unicus KawagoeYaoko Kawagoe Museum- Lumine Kawagoe
- JR Kawagoe Station
- Seibu Railway Hon Kawagoe Station
- Une Brise
The additional 12 that participated in the stamp rally in spring (There is no stamp rally in Autumn):
- Homemade Bakery Nicori
- Nakain
- Tennuma
- Former Yamazaki House
- Koedo Kurari
- Matsumoto Soy Sauce
- Fuji Asama Shrine
- Kawagoe Kou Sushi
- Yuno Udon
- Koedo Bon Appetit
- Ura Niwa Flower
- Cha Soba Kotobukian Kuranomachi Store
Not participating in the photo contest and weren’t in the stamp rally, but have hanachozu:
A special shout out to…
Saimyouji and Kawagoe Hachimangu who have played a key role in the prevalence of, and interest in, hanachozu in Kawagoe:
Saimyouji
Located on the outskirts of Kawagoe, beside Kawagoe Park, Saimyouji take the art of floating flowers to a whole different level. Of the floating flowers I have seen in Saitama Prefecture, I rate the ones at Saimyouji very high. Definitely in my personal top three. We have Saimyouji to thank for the hanachozu photo contest. October is pink ribbon month and the temple is lit up each night...
Kawagoe Hachimangu
Information
Event: Kawagoe Hanachozu 川越花手水
Date: Hanachozu Autumn Photo Contest – October 1st to November 26th 2023.
Time: various, depending on the location
Cost: free to view, free to participate
Venue: Various around Kawagoe City, Saitama Prefecture
Access
Access from any of Kawagoe City’s stations, particularly those in the tourist area – Kawagoe, Hon Kawagoe and Kawagoeshi stations. There is free parking for tourists on Isanuma Street off route 254 near Honmaru Goten – on Google Maps.
20230302 Editor’s note: in spring 2023 there was a stamp rally as well.