Nagano · Suwa
Onbashira
御柱祭
Once every six years, giant firs are dragged from the mountain and raised at the corners of Suwa Taisha. Next: 2028.
Next
1–3 April 2028
526 days away
Every 6 years (anchored on 2022) — 1 April, for 3 days
Future dates: 1 April 2028 · 1 April 2034 · 1 April 2040
Origin
It is said to have run for more than twelve hundred years, and its origin is genuinely unclear. What has been handed down is the form alone — the pillars at the four corners must be renewed from the mountain — without a surviving explanation of why. Held in the years of the Tiger and the Monkey, it lands on a six-year cycle.
What to look for
In the kiyotoshi, a massive log — with men riding it — is sent down a steep slope. People have died doing this; it is not a safety-managed spectacle. The satobiki, dragging the pillars through the towns to the shrines, is the longer and gentler half.
How to watch
The festival splits into four events — yamadashi (April) and satobiki (May), each for the Upper and Lower shrines — and the dates are set year by year. The date shown here is the first of them, the Upper Shrine yamadashi. Follow viewing instructions without exception. This belongs to the local parish, and visitor sightlines are never the priority. It happens once in six years — get the year wrong and there is nothing to see.
Where
Suwa Taisha
Suwa, Nagano
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