At night, the floats fill with light. In Hita, in Oita—a town that still keeps the look of the old shogunal domain, in its Mameda and Kuma quarters—tall floats, some ten meters high, move through the old streets in late July to the sound of Gion music. There are nine of them, and every one is made by hand by the people of its own neighborhood. The daytime floats are splendid, but the heart of this festival is the night. Hung with lanterns, they become banyama, evening floats, countless small flames floating in the dark as the music rises and the festival reaches its peak. Gion worship here goes back some five hundred years; by 1714 floats much like today's were already being offered. It is the rite of three shrines, and each year the floats carry a scene from kabuki, brought to life by a doll maker's hands. It is a national Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property and part of the UNESCO-listed float festivals. A week before the festival, all the floats gather in front of Hita Station for the shudan kaomise, the lit evening floats assembled in one place—a sight worth timing a visit around. Hita is a town of water, threaded by the Mikuma River, its old merchant houses still standing in Mameda. Spend the day in the streets and the night following the lit floats, and the summer of this water town deepens with the lanterns.