Two 4-tonne wooden floats flipped in one day at a Japanese festival. Two men died under them

Four tonnes of wood. A crowd of men pulling it at a sprint. One right-hand corner.

On Saturday 10 October 2026, that mix went wrong twice in one Osaka day. Two danjiri festival floats tipped over at street corners. Two men died and 16 people were hurt, according to the Japanese news agency Jiji and TV Asahi.

The next day, a video of a float coming down a street went off online. The poster wrote, in Japanese, that he had seen the body "split clean in two". It passed 16.3 million views.

What happened at the Osaka festival where the floats flipped?

Both crashes happened in the Senshu area of Osaka Prefecture, south of the city.

The first was in Izumisano, in the Nagataki district, at about 10:55 in the morning. The float was turning right at a junction when it went over. The second was in Izumiotsu, in the Miyamachi district, at about 1:20 in the afternoon. Same kind of turn, same result.

Here are the two side by side.

Source: Jiji Press and TV Asahi (via Yahoo News Japan), 10 to 11 October 2026.

Police think both floats lost their balance in a yarimawashi, the sharp turn at speed that the festival is famous for. They are still investigating. Jiji reports that no spectators were hurt.

Did the float really split in two?

This is the question the video put in everyone's head, so here is what we can say.

The post that went viral is a 53-second clip. It shows a huge wooden float coming down a street lined with red and white curtains. Teams in matching coats run beside it. Crowds film from the roadside. The caption says the poster ended up seeing the body split clean in two.

The news reports from 10 October say the two floats overturned. They do not say either one broke apart, and police have not said so either. We could not match the clip to a town or an hour. We have seen no report of injuries from the scene in the clip itself.

So the split is the poster's description. What is not in doubt is the weekend it came from, and the two men who did not go home.

Photo: Kounosu / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

How heavy is a danjiri float, and why do they turn so fast?

Jiji puts each float at about 4 metres tall and about 4 tonnes. Some travel guides say a little less, but 4 tonnes is the figure the news agency used for these crashes.

A danjiri is a carved wooden shrine on wheels. Teams pull it on ropes through the town. Men at the front steer with long levers, and men at the back push and hold.

The turns are the whole point. In a yarimawashi, the team runs the float straight at a junction, then swings it through a 90-degree corner without slowing much. The crowd roars. Roofers called daiku-gata ride on top and dance as it turns.

The float also needs weight on the right side to stay up. That brings us to the two men.

Who were the two men who died?

Both were riding on the sides of their floats as counterweights. Their job was to lean out with their body weight and stop the float from tipping as it came round the corner.

One was a 51-year-old company executive from Izumisano. The other was a 48-year-old company employee from Izumi City. Jiji says both were pinned under the floats when they fell. We are not naming them.

The Nagataki crash left seven others hurt. At Miyamachi nine were hurt, and none of those injuries was life-threatening, according to the reports.

Photo: Hhaithait / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

Has a float tipped over like this before?

Yes. In April 2023, a float in Sakai, also in Osaka Prefecture, tipped over while turning right at a junction after being repaired. Eleven people were hurt, according to The Japan Times.

Different town, different year, same turn. A right-hand corner, a loss of balance, a float on its side.

The most famous festival of this kind is the Kishiwada Danjiri Matsuri, held every September and October. Japanese regional news this September called it the most dangerous festival in Japan. The 10 October crashes were in nearby towns, not in Kishiwada.

What does a yarimawashi look like from the street?

The still on this page shows it. The float is far down the road. In front of it, a row of pullers in dark coats sprints across the junction. Red and white curtains line the pavement and the crowd stands right at the edge.

There are no barriers between the float and the people who come to watch. That is part of the thrill, and it is why the clip travelled so far.

Teams train for months. The idea is that everyone knows their place on the rope. But a float this heavy, moving this fast, leaves almost no room to fix a mistake once the turn has started.

Photo: Kounosu / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

Why do people still do it?

The replies to the viral post show how split people are.

One person wrote that those who do this every year know the risks, so it is self-inflicted. The same person added that it is impressive in its own way. Another said the craziest festival in the world is right here in Japan.

A third described what happens when someone is taken to hospital. Dozens of festival people take over the emergency waiting room, they said, and alcohol is involved. We could not check that, and it is one person's account.

The poster himself said he had never seen anything this high-risk.

Which reply do people keep quoting?

It is not the one about the risks, and it is not the one about the hospital waiting room.

It is the reply that says the scary ones are the people who keep the camera rolling after it all comes crashing down. A float weighs 4 tonnes. A phone weighs less than 200 grams. And 16 million people hit play.