During the Gion Festival Sakimatsuri float parade held on July 17, 2024, the ninth Niwatori-hoko float's wheel was partially damaged, and it had to abandon the parade midway down Shijo Street. There is a record of the Kanko-boko float turning back 69 years ago due to a malfunctioning wheel, but float town officials unanimously said, "We've never heard of anything like that in decades," and this was a rare incident in recent years.
After the lottery was re-examined, the Niwatori-hoko float stopped near Yanagi-no-Banba on Shijo Street just after 10 a.m. When officials inspected the left rear wheel, which had been making an abnormal noise, they found that the wooden outer part, called the "oba," was cracked. They immediately decided that it would be difficult to continue the parade and decided to turn back.
While emergency repairs were being made to the broken wheel, such as inserting metal screws, the following floats passed them. People along the route looked on as the giant floats cooperated with each other to avoid colliding with each other as they passed through. After the last Fune-hoko had passed, the procession began to head back west, in the opposite direction to its original direction, and returned to the front of the building where the preservation society is located around noon.
According to the preservation society, the wheel was made over 10 years ago and is relatively new. Representative director Atsushi Sakamoto (56years old) said, "It's sad that we had to turn back halfway, but we're glad no one was injured."
