Greater Tokyo · Chiba · Isumi
Ōhara Hadaka Festival
大原はだか祭り
The autumn festival of Ōhara in Isumi, Chiba. Its highlight is the Shiofumi on the first day, when more than a dozen mikoshi are carried at once from Ōhara Beach into the sea, jostled among the waves and thrown high into the air. On the evening of both days every mikoshi parades along the shopping street to Ōhara Elementary School for the Ōwakare, a farewell under fireworks. A festival for good harvests and good catches that goes back to the Edo period. 23 to 24 September every year.
Next
23–24 September 2027
ExpectedWorked out from past dates. We update it once the organiser announces the dates.
323 days away
Every year, 23 September, for 2 days
Future dates: 23 September 2027 · 23 September 2028 · 23 September 2029
Origin
The festival is said to go back to the Edo period. Takiuchi Shrine in Ōi has a votive picture of the festival offered in 1864, and another dated 1841, which suggests that its customs and organisation were already in place in the 1830s. Even then there were the round of visits to ten shrines, prayers for a good catch on the beach, the Shiofumi and the Ōwakare, and people are said to have pawned anything to get ready for it. The local lord valued the way the festival held people together and had a fast courier report to the lord of Ōtaki Castle when the mikoshi procession had ended safely. It was once held from 13 to 15 August; with the new calendar it moved to 23 to 25 September in 1873, and since 1913 it has been held on 23 and 24 September. The name Ōhara Hadaka Matsuri took hold after its mikoshi and bearers appeared at the opening ceremony of the National Sports Festival held in Chiba in 1973. It is also said that during the war, when the shrine elders offered the police to hold back on the festivities, they were told instead to hold the festival in full, since it raised the spirits of the community.
What to look for
The Shiofumi on the first day. At Ōhara Beach more than a dozen mikoshi are carried into the sea together, in prayer for good harvests and good catches, and jostle one another; they charge about in the water and are thrown high into the air. The climax is the Ōwakare on the evening of both days: every mikoshi gathers in front of the Kidoizumi sake brewery and parades with festival songs along the Ōhara central shopping street to Ōhara Elementary School, filling the kilometre-long street with people and mikoshi. In the schoolyard they race about as if in competition and are thrown up high; when the fireworks go up the mikoshi draw close together, and the bearers sing a song of parting, “Young men, parting is hard; if only meeting brought no parting.”
How to watch
A moving mikoshi is as dangerous as a bicycle or a car if it hits you: follow the police, the guards and each shrine’s traffic stewards. Mikoshi may cross the road, so take care when passing. Drones are in principle banned at and around the venues, and visitors are asked to take their rubbish home (2026 notice). In the evening procession along the shopping street, the two shrines on duty that year walk side by side at the head, and the rest follow district by district.
If you go
The Shiofumi is on 23 September at Ōhara Beach; the Ōwakare is on the evenings of both the 23rd and 24th, from the Ōhara central shopping street to Ōhara Elementary School. Every venue is within walking distance of Ōhara Station on the JR Sotobō line (about twenty minutes to Ōhara Beach). Before the Shiofumi a prayer for good harvests and good catches is held at Ōhara fishing port. Roads are restricted in many places during the festival and visitors are asked to come by public transport and on foot. There is parking at the city office’s Ōhara building and the Ōhara Culture Centre, but spaces are limited, and there is no parking or drop-off near the Shiofumi or Ōwakare venues. Parking at nearby shops and facilities without permission is not allowed (2026).
Where
Ōhara, Isumi
Isumi, Chiba
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