Festival Calendar

January

Guide: Hatsumōde, the first shrine visit of the year

January 9–11 · Osaka · ★

Tōka Ebisu

Osaka's New Year festival for the god of business. About a million people come over three days to collect lucky bamboo branches from shrine maidens.

February

February 25 · Kyoto · ★

Baikasai Plum Festival

On the anniversary of Sugawara no Michizane's death, geiko and maiko serve tea under the plum blossoms at Kyoto's Kitano Tenmangū.

February 2–4 (around Setsubun) · Kyoto · ★

Setsubun at Yoshida Shrine

On the eve of spring by the old calendar, demons are chased out of Kyoto's Yoshida Shrine by a four-eyed exorcist, and old charms are burned in a towering bonfire.

March

March 1–14 · Nara · ★★

Omizutori

For two weeks each March, monks at Nara's Tōdai-ji swing giant flaming torches along the balcony of a hilltop hall. The ritual has been held every year since 752.

April

Festival guides for April are on the way.

May

Festival guides for May are on the way.

June

Festival guides for June are on the way.

July

July 1–31 · Kyoto · ★

Gion Matsuri

A month-long summer festival in Kyoto, over 1,100 years old, where giant wooden floats roll through the city to keep plague away.

August

Festival guides for August are on the way.

September

Festival guides for September are on the way.

October

Festival guides for October are on the way.

November

Festival guides for November are on the way.

December

December 2–3 · Chichibu · ★★

Chichibu Night Festival

A winter night festival in the hills west of Tokyo, where lantern-lit floats are hauled up a steep slope under fireworks on a freezing December night.