Kyūshū & Okinawa · Fukuoka
Hōjōya Festival (Hakozakigū)
筥崎宮放生会(ほうじょうや)
The great autumn festival of Hakozakigū in Higashi Ward, Fukuoka, held for seven days and seven nights from 12 to 18 September. It is a festival “to cherish the lives of all things, to forbid needless killing and to give thanks for the autumn harvest”, and one of the three great festivals of Hakata, with the Dontaku and the Gion Yamakasa. Some five hundred stalls line the approach, and about a million visits are made over the week. In odd-numbered years the mikoshi procession, the goshinkō, goes out. 12 to 18 September every year.
Next
12–18 September 2027
RegularWorked out from the organiser’s fixed schedule.
313 days away
Every year, 12 September, for 7 days
Future dates: 12 September 2027 · 12 September 2028 · 12 September 2029
Origin
A hōjōe is a rite of setting captured creatures free, out of care for life. Hakozakigū’s is said to have begun with an oracle declaring that, since much killing had been done in battle, a release-of-life rite should be held, and it is counted the shrine’s most important festival, kept for more than a thousand years. The mikoshi procession held every second year, in odd-numbered years, is designated an Intangible Folk Cultural Property of Fukuoka City.
What to look for
For seven days and nights rites and festivities go on, and some five hundred stalls, selling new-season ginger and much else, line the approach. In odd-numbered years about five hundred parishioners carry out the goshinkō with due solemnity: the outward procession leaves Hakozakigū in the evening of the 12th and passes Kyūshū University Hospital and JR Yoshizuka Station, and the return procession retraces the route on the night of the 14th. Through the week the cloister holds paper lanterns offered by notable citizens of Fukuoka and Hakata and a display of the festival’s chanpon toys and marbles; on the 18th, doves and other creatures are set free in the release-of-life rite.
How to watch
The festival gives thanks that we live at the cost of other lives. During the week Hakozakigū takes requests for memorial rites for creatures that had to be killed and for pets that lived as part of the family. In the grounds, drones, live streaming and similar filming, and commercial photography are not allowed; worshippers photographing themselves and their families need not ask.
If you go
The festival runs from 12 to 18 September across the grounds and approach of Hakozakigū. The goshinkō is held in odd-numbered years, setting out at 6 p.m. on the 12th and returning from 7 p.m. on the 14th. It gets extremely crowded, and visitors are asked to come by public transport; the nearest station is Hakozaki-miyamae on the subway’s Hakozaki Line. The shrine car park is entered from National Route 3.
Where
Hakozakigū
Fukuoka
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