Photo gallery of 2024 Tucson Japanese Festival

After a 3 year hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic, our Southern Arizona Japanese Cultural Coalition (of which I am the Editor of the website) decided to host our annual Tucson Japanese Festival once again at the Tucson Chinese Cultural Center (1288 W. River Rd.), on March 23, 2024. We had previously hosted this as a New Year’s celebration but time commitments changed, so March was a better time, for Spring.

This 2024 festival was well attended by about 2000 people and there were numerous performances by taiko drummers, martial artists, Japanese dancers, shakuhachi flute players, women in kimono doing tea ceremonies, plus delicious food from Japanese, Korean & Chinese vendors. Weather was perfect and we even had two mochi pounding (from rice) activities by the Pimienta (and Hayes) families, plus mochi samples for sale and mochibana art to do. Japanese games (i.e. shogi) and children’s activities (origami, chopstick pickup & kendama) were ongoing in the east side activity rooms of the center. Numerous Japanese-themed vendors had items for sale or display in the central hall.

Photos below courtesy of my husband Albrecht Classen.

Thank you from Southern AZ Japanese Cultural Coalition to all the performers, vendors, exhibitors, volunteers, supporters for helping to make our annual fundraiser a huge success. All info about us at www.southernazjapan.org.