THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
July 15, 2023 at 18:31 JST
Participants carry the No. 5 Yamakasa float of the Nishi Nagare team through Fukuoka on July 15. (Minako Yoshimoto)
FUKUOKA--A reveler helping to haul a 1-ton float at the Hakata Gion Yamakasa Festival here July 15 was fatally crushed after he apparently tripped and fell, authorities said.
Toshimi Akiyoshi, 57, was later pronounced dead with chest injuries.
The accident occurred around 5:30 a.m. on the final day of the two-week festival in which seven “kakiyama” floats, each weighing 1 ton, are hauled by men in traditional loincloths as they race against one another through the streets of Fukuoka.
Akiyoshi was a member of the Chiyo Nagare team hauling the No. 6 Yamakasa float, according to officers at the Hakata Police Station and the Hakata Gion Yamakasa Promotion Association.
He became trapped under the float at an intersection about 400 meters from the starting point of Kushidajinja shrine.
Hirotaka Seto, the secretary-general of the Hakata Gion Yamakasa Promotion Association, said: “I have no recollection of a fatal accident at the Yamakasa before. It is a horrible thing to have happened and we will do everything possible to make sure the Yamakasa is safe and secure.”
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