Mikuni Festival

三国祭

The annual grand festival of Mikuni Shrine in Mikuni, Sakai, Fukui. On the middle day, the 20th, six floats, yama, crowned with giant warrior figures more than six metres high gather before the shrine and then, with mikoshi and a procession of warriors, are hauled through the narrow streets of the old port town into the night to the music of children’s drums, flutes and shamisen. Counted among the three great festivals of Hokuriku, it is an Intangible Folk Cultural Property of Fukui Prefecture. 19 to 21 May every year.

19–21 May 2027

RegularWorked out from the organiser’s fixed schedule.

196 days away

Every year, 19 May, for 3 days

Future dates: 19 May 2027 · 19 May 2028 · 19 May 2029

Beautiful Satoyama: the Mikuni Festival (Sakai City, Fukui, official channel on YouTube)

Origin

The festival goes back to the mid-Edo period. The oldest record is a note on a parasol float in a ward record of 1697, and a document of 1753 lists the order of floats one to ten and says that the Kami-machi ward made a figure of Empress Jingū, said to be the origin of today’s warrior figures. Figures became the custom from the late eighteenth century, and by the middle of the Meiji era the floats stood more than ten metres high, so that the heads of the warriors could be seen from the surrounding villages. The festival was held on a Monkey day of the fourth lunar month until, after the solar calendar was adopted, its day was fixed in 1873 as 20 May every year. It is said to keep customs from the Edo period, before Shinto and Buddhism were separated.

What to look for

The middle day, the 20th. The town has eighteen floats, and each year six of them are offered by the wards on duty, the yamaban. By noon floats one to six are lined up before Mikuni Shrine; after the rite for the departure of the mikoshi and floats, at 1 p.m. they set out into town, led by float number one, with the procession and mikoshi in their midst. Each float has two open tiers: on top a giant papier-mâché warrior made anew every year (only Sakura-machi shows a weeping cherry tree), below the musicians. Primary-school children of the ward beat the drums at the front, and adults play bamboo flutes and shamisen at the back. On two big wooden wheels and a small steering wheel at the rear, the floats creak through narrow streets lined with stalls amid calls to steer left and right. In the evening they gather on the station road as the festival reaches its height, and the floats returning to their wards push through the crowds into the night.

How to watch

The wards take turns to send floats, every three years for the old wards near the shrine and every six or eight years for others, and each time a figure-maker creates a new design. The festival is kept by the shrine’s parishioners’ association. The middle day is very crowded, and visitors are asked not to use drones for photography (2026).

If you go

The floats set out from Mikuni Shrine at 1 p.m. on 20 May. All six are lined up before the shrine by about noon. On the night of the 19th there is the eve-of-festival float procession, and the 21st brings the closing rite. Before the festival, from 15 to 18 May, the floats can be seen on display at their float houses (10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in 2026). On the 20th a free shuttle bus runs between Mikuni Station on the Echizen Railway and car parks at Naritasan Fukui Betsuin and Mikuni Sports Park.

Where

Mikuni Shrine

Sakai, Fukui

Open in maps

Sources

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