Not a tour of famous sights,
but time spent with people.
There is more to Ojiya than any guidebook can tell.
Katakai, where fireworks have long marked the turning points of a life.
Nishikigoi — ornamental koi — that went from here to the world.
Sake and food born of snow-country water and rice.
A culture rooted in the land, and the people who live with it.
HIYORI listens to the wishes behind each journey,
and shapes time that can be spent only in this place.
its wishes to the night sky
for some 400 years.
The fireworks here are not a contest of beauty. Every single shell carries someone’s prayer, or their thanks.
It varies with the date, the fireworks and the arrangements included.
sent up into the night sky.
In Katakai, where people have entrusted their feelings to fireworks for some 400 years, your own story is placed into a single firework.
Not a journey to watch fireworks, but a journey to give them. HIYORI shapes that one day for you.
It varies with the date, the fireworks and the arrangements included.
than the greatest bloom.
A birth, a coming of age, a marriage, a sixtieth birthday. Gratitude, and prayer. At the festival, before each firework rises, the name of the giver and their message are read aloud.
You look up knowing a little of someone’s life — and the same firework is no longer the same.
and on to the next generation.
These are true stories of Katakai. The fireworks fade, but the feelings placed in them stay on in a family’s memory.
its fireworks to the gods.
Old banzuke, the festival’s printed programmes, record the type and size of each firework and the name of the person who offered it.
Times have changed, but the wish to entrust one’s heart to a firework has been handed down unchanged.
its wishes to the night sky
for some 400 years.
The fireworks here are not a contest of beauty. Every single shell carries someone’s prayer, or their thanks.
The quiet riches of Ojiya,
still waiting to be found.
Nishikigoi, textiles, food, sake and snow-country life —
things nurtured and handed down in this land,
each one unmistakably Ojiya.
*Experiences other than the Katakai Private Fireworks are currently in development. Their content, timing and conditions will be proposed after coordination with local partners.
To Ojiya, Niigata.
Ojiya is a snow-country town near the centre of Niigata Prefecture.
From Tokyo, the Joetsu Shinkansen bullet train runs to Nagaoka and Urasa stations.
- Tokyo — Nagaoka
- approx. 1 hr 30 min
- Tokyo — Urasa
- approx. 1 hr 30 min
- Nagaoka Sta. — Ojiya
- approx. 25 min
- Urasa Sta. — Ojiya
- approx. 35 min
*Travel times are approximate and vary with train and road conditions.
Transfers from the station are arranged individually, according to your plan.
A journey is not chosen from a set menu.
It begins with listening.
We live here —
and there is an Ojiya
we long to share.
We live and work in Ojiya, and have walked alongside the people and culture of this land.
The turning of the seasons, traditions handed down, the richness found in ordinary days.
Scenes that feel everyday to those of us who live here may become, for a traveller, an encounter never forgotten.
We turn that quiet charm into special time with the people you love. HIYORI offers journeys that only those who know this land could create.
Tell us about the journey
you hope to take in Ojiya.
A celebration built around the fireworks of Katakai. A stay among the culture and people of the region. Nothing needs to be decided yet.
Simply tell us who you would like to travel with, and how you would like to spend your time.