SPECIAL
The flower festival which brings spring to Tajima!
Tanto Tulip Festival, which is held from the middle to the end of April, is a special attraction of spring in Tajima.
It has been held at Hatayama, Tanto-cho, Toyooka city since 1992, and colorful tulips fascinate tourists every year.
Visitors are increasing year by year and now about 70,000 people visit this big event a year!
In the tulip field, a bazaar of local specialties, tulip picking and a photo contest take place.
How it all started…
Originally, Tanto was the only producing area of tulip bulbs in Hyogo Prefecture. But the tulip bulb farmers were decreasing because of aging.
The farmers thought, “We’d like to attain success at the very end,” so they decided to gather the tulips which they grow scatteredly around the town in one place.
“It would be beautiful if we gather all tulips in one place.”
“We want to please the people in the town.”
“Even one ordinary field can make visitors stop to take photos if it has a lot of tulips.”
The farmers began to work together for the tulip field.
The people in the town enjoyed the festival at the first year, so they continued it the following year.
At the third year, Tanto took part in “Festival of Tajima, the Ideal City” (1994), a big event held in all Tajima, with “the jumbo flower garden” of tulips.
It was the first time when Flower Art (a picture made of flowers) was showed.
The rough sketch is drawn on a computer nowadays, but it was drawn by hand in those days.
“Making a picture with flowers sounds like fun.”
“Then, let’s draw a rough sketch for it.”
All the staffs were the townspeople of Tanto. They made the proposal, designed the picture and planted tulip bulbs in the field all by themselves.
“The Japanese Islands,” the first Flower Art, was photographed from the helicopter and the photo appeared on the newspaper in color.
While only 2,000~3,000 people visited there per year till then, the field got as many as 15,000 visitors in 1994.
The event held in the middle of the fields on the theme of “flowers”
The farmers have wished people who love flowers to see tulips in the calm and peaceful mood.
The event planned and held by and for the farmers” is the “origin” of Tanto Tulip Festival.
From the first year (1992) to 1997, the floriculture association, the agricultural cooperative and the dissemination center had mainly managed the event, and Tanto Silk Road Tourist Association has been the executive office to arrange the festival since 1998.
The bulb association and the dissemination center grow flowers. The agricultural cooperative the association of commerce and industry take charge of reception and accounting.
The town office and the tourist association manage the parking area and traffic and the local people also work on the festival spontaneously.
The festival has put down deep roots in the town as the event which the local people and organizations lead.
The main attraction of the event is Flower Art. A different picture is created all over the field with about 100,000 tulips every year.
Its elaborate design and subject impress the visitors to the festival.
