Japanese culture takes center stage at Henderson’s Aki Matsuri Festival

The free Aki Matsuri Festival, a collaboration between the city of Henderson and the Japanese Festival Association of Nevada, took place on Saturday at Water Street Plaza outside Henderson City Hall. The event featured live music, authentic Japanese food, and festival traditions including the display of a mikoshi, or portable shrine. Art Hirano, owner of Las Vegas-based Bluebird Mahjong Studio, invited attendees to play free games of riichi, a Japanese version of mahjong played on electric tables that sort tiles automatically. He said, “A lot of people are not familiar with this type of mahjong. It is a treat to be here and show this unique culture to so many.”

Vendor Kannika Brueske traveled from Hudson, Wisconsin, to sell sterling silver earrings and bracelets with miniature origami figures preserved in resin. She said she took up origami during the COVID-19 pandemic to cope and now shares it with others. Jeff Winchester, chairman of the Japanese Festival Association of Nevada and a labor attorney who volunteered to help plan the festival from the beginning, said, “When I lived in Japan for 11 years, so many people helped me and welcomed me. This is a day in which people can transport themselves to Japan.”

Elected officials in attendance included U.S. Rep. Dina Titus, Clark County Commissioner Jim Gibson, and Henderson City Council members Carrie Cox and Monica Larson, who gave remarks inside the amphitheater around noon. Titus noted that about 30,000 Japanese people live in Nevada and said, “What a pleasure it is to have the diversity of this community. That diversity enriches our culture, economy, our politics, our food, and so much more.” The festival drew hundreds, with attendees eating wagyu skewers, sipping matcha drinks, and children playing on the plaza’s jungle gym. Other vendors sold Pokémon and anime merchandise, kimonos, custom jewelry, and offered sake tastings and Asahi beer for purchase, while a booth collected raffle entries for a trip to Japan.

Sources: Las Vegas Review-Journal