Central Japan · Aichi · Tsushima

Owari Tsushima Tenno Festival

尾張津島天王祭

The river festival of Tsushima Shrine, said to have been held for nearly 600 years. On a summer night five boats hung with great half-domes of lanterns are rowed across the pond in Tennōgawa Park; the next morning they return transformed into danjiri boats carrying Noh figures. Held every year on the fourth Saturday of July (the evening festival) and the following Sunday (the morning festival).

24–25 July 2027

267 days away

Every year, the 4th Saturday of July, for 2 days

Future dates: 24 July 2027 · 22 July 2028 · 28 July 2029

Origin

Tsushima Shrine is the head shrine of some 3,000 Tsushima and Tennō shrines across Japan, and has long been known locally as “O-Tennō-sama”. This is its festival: Tsushima City cites a record from 1459 and describes it as nearly 600 years old. Oda Nobunaga is said to have watched it in 1558, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi and the lords of the Owari domain came often after him. It was once held on the 14th and 15th of the sixth month of the old lunar calendar; today it falls on the fourth Saturday of July and the day after. It was designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property in 1980, and in 2016 was inscribed on UNESCO’s intangible heritage list as one of 33 Yama, Hoko, Yatai float festivals in Japan.

What to look for

The draw is the evening festival, when the lantern boats, all alight, are rowed across the Maruike pond in Tennōgawa Park. Each makiwara boat is built on two hulls lashed together, with 365 lanterns, one for each day of the year, arranged in a half-dome, and 12, one for each month, raised on a tall central mast. In 2026 the lanterns were lit from 6:30 p.m. at the boats’ moorings, and at 8:15 p.m. the five boats set off across the pond towards the shrine’s temporary resting place, the moment Tsushima City calls the highlight of the evening. The next morning the boats are redressed as danjiri boats bearing Noh figures and, joined by the Ichie boat, six cross the pond. Ten young men on the Ichie boat leap one after another into the water with cloth-draped halberds and swim to present them at the shrine; drops from the cloth are said to heal sickness and injury.

How to watch

Both days go ahead in light rain. In a typhoon the festival is cancelled or scaled back rather than postponed: in 2018 the evening boats did not sail, and only two boats crossed in the morning. The organisers ask visitors to keep out of the danger zones, not to bring, fly or film with drones, not to throw things from the stands, and to take their rubbish home, and warn of falling ash from the fireworks on the evening of the festival (2026). Seats and stands around the pond are ticketed and go on sale each spring.

If you go

The festival is held at Tennōgawa Park, about 15 minutes’ walk from Tsushima Station on the Meitetsu line. The evening festival runs from late afternoon into the night; the morning festival is over by midday. In 2026 the evening festival began at 6 p.m. and the morning festival at 9:10 a.m. Tsushima is about 24 minutes from Meitetsu Nagoya Station. On the evening festival day the park’s car park is closed; in 2026 temporary car parks were opened at schools and other sites in the city, but closed overnight. The organisers expected crowds around the park from about 5 to 10:30 p.m. on the evening festival day (2026).

Where

Tennōgawa Park (Maruike pond)

Tsushima, Aichi

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Sources

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