Nanyo Chrysanthemum Festival (Hana Park Venue)

This is the second venue of the Nanyo Chrysanthemum Festival, the oldest in Japan. Where the Miyauchi venue leads with flower art, the Hana Park venue hosts what lies at the heart of a chrysanthemum festival: a competitive show and kiku-ningyo doll displays. Local growers bring work tended over a full year, competing by category in forms such as the three-stem large bloom and the cascading kengai. Nanyo's kiku-ningyo tradition goes back more than a century; living chrysanthemums are planted into bamboo armatures to form the dolls' robes, staging scenes chosen anew each year, and craftsmen tend them daily to keep the blooms in condition through the run. Counting from the Miyauchi venue, the festival spans early October to early November, so visitors can pick their timing to match the peak of the flowers. Open 9:00 to 16:00.