On the nights of May 1 and 2, the small market town of Fukuno in the Tonami plain of Toyama fills with towering lanterns — seven great yotaka, six meters and more of bamboo, washi paper, and warrior paintings, lit from within so they burn crimson against the dark. Young men haul them through the streets to cries of "yoiyasa, yoiyasa," drums pounding, the yotaka-bushi song rising from the crowd. It has gone on this way for roughly 370 years, since the town's founding, when residents carried lanterns out to welcome a deity's spirit brought from Ise — a lantern procession that never stopped growing.

The famous part comes late on the second night, around eleven, when lanterns meeting in the narrow streets stage the hikiai: deliberate clashes in which each crew tears at the other's ornaments. A month of craftsmanship is wrecked in minutes, on purpose. The destruction is not an accident of enthusiasm but the point — the festival is not complete until the beautiful thing is broken.

Fukuno is on the JR Johana Line, about forty minutes from Takaoka, and May 3 continues with a daytime procession of gilded floats if you stay over. The festival is registered as a Project Future Heritage by the National Federation of UNESCO Associations in Japan. Golden Week sends most travelers to the famous places; this is the argument for a small town in the rice plain instead, on the one night a year it burns brightest.