Yamagata City is the central hub for Yamagata Prefecture and has many shops and restaurants around its main station. It is also the location with the most western hotels and the primary place of lodging for visitors visiting this region. This city serves as a good hub to visit the surrounding cities and towns around this prefecture with bus lines and train lines linking almost every part of Yamagata from the station. There are also many bars near the station giving this city a good night life for visitors to enjoy at the front of the station as well as the nanukamachi district in the downtown area of the city.
Festivals and events Yamagata Prefecture has a number of annual festivals and events. The largest is the
Yamagata Hanagasa Festival (花笠祭り) which takes place in
Yamagata City on the first weekend in August, when thousands of people perform the hanagasa dance in the city centre and attracts up to 300,000 spectators. Yamagata City is the home of the bi-annual
Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival in October. In February, a snow lantern festival is held in
Yonezawa at the
Uesugi Shrine. Hundreds of candle-lit lanterns light pathways dug into the snow around the shrine. Yonezawa is also the site of the
Uesugi Festival (上杉祭り,
uesugi matsuri) in mid-spring. The festival's highlight is a re-enactment of the
Battle of Kawanakajima on the banks of the Matsukawa River. In September, Yamagata Prefecture is famous for its
imoni, a taro-root stew popular in Northern Japan during the autumn. Imonikai, taro-root soup parties, are very popular during this season, and many tourists come to Yamagata Prefecture specifically for its particular style of imoni.
Art Beginning in 2003, Yamagata city officials with the aid of Tōhoku University of Art and Design began a three-year project in which the Buddhist art of the city's temples would be catalogued and compared to a set of guidelines in order to identify "cultural assets". One hundred and ninety temples have had their works of art examined and several significant examples of Buddhist sculpture have been discovered. At Heisenji Temple, in the Hirashimizu district, a particularly rare statue, a seated
Vairocana Buddha made from
zelkova wood, was found. Other significant works include sculptures from the
Heian period (794–1185) and
Kamakura period (1192–1333). The Yamagata Museum of Art, located in Yamagata City, was opened in 1964 through the efforts of a foundation led by Yoshio Hattori, the president of Yamagata Shimbun and Yamagata Broadcasting Co, Ltd. The permanent collection consists of three types of art: Japanese and Asian, regional, and French. Special exhibitions are held periodically.
Language Yamagata Prefecture is known for its local dialect
Yamagata-ben, sometimes thought of as backward sounding in other parts of Japan. The 2004 movie
Swing Girls (スウィングガールズ), co-written and directed by
Shinobu Yaguchi, is set in Yamagata and makes use of Yamagata-ben for comedic purposes. == Sports ==