Three shrines — Chojayama Shinra, Shinmeigu, and Ogami — send their portable shrines through the streets of Hachinohe simultaneously, each accompanied by elaborate floats bearing historical and mythological figures. More than twenty-seven floats participate. The scale is significant and the craftsmanship detailed in ways that require proximity to appreciate. Hachinohe's festival is often overshadowed by the Aomori Nebuta, which draws international attention and enormous crowds. The Sansha Taisai rewards a different kind of visitor — one willing to travel to a city not primarily organized for tourism and find there a celebration that has been running continuously for four hundred years without orienting itself toward outside audiences. The city sits on the Pacific coast of Aomori, reachable by shinkansen in two and a half hours from Tokyo. The festival runs for five days at the end of July and beginning of August. It is designated UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, which is recognition it received because the tradition deserved it, not because the city needed the designation to survive.