Sawara Grand Festival (Autumn)

佐原の大祭秋祭り(諏訪神社秋祭り)

Fourteen floats crowned with giant figures are hauled through Shinjuku, the part of Sawara west of the Ono River, to the sound of Sawara-bayashi festival music. The autumn festival of Suwa Shrine, held over the Friday, Saturday and Sunday around the second Saturday of October.

8–10 October 2027

344 days away

Every year, the 2nd Saturday of October, minus 1 day, for 3 days

Future dates: 8 October 2027 · 13 October 2028 · 12 October 2029

Origin

According to Katori City, the town of Sawara is divided by the Ono River into Honjuku on the east bank and Shinjuku on the west: Honjuku holds the Gion festival of Yasaka Shrine in July, and Shinjuku the autumn festival of Suwa Shrine in October. Together they are called the Sawara Grand Festival. Shinjuku was newly settled in the Tenshō era (1573–1591) and later took Suwa Shrine as its guardian, and in 1721 the village headman Inō Gonnojō led the founding of a Suwa festival with processions of decorated displays, separate from the Gion festival. Shinjuku has had no part in the Gion festival since, and Katori City dates the origin of the Sawara float festival to that year. According to Chiba Prefecture’s official tourism site, Suwa Shrine enshrines Takeminakata-no-Mikoto, regarded as a god of agriculture, and the autumn festival gives thanks for the harvest. The Sawara float procession was designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property of Japan in 2004, and in 2016 it was inscribed on UNESCO’s list of Intangible Cultural Heritage as one of the Yama, Hoko, Yatai float festivals of Japan.

What to look for

The highlights are the Saturday in the middle of the festival, when all fourteen floats line up together, and the trick hauling called no-no-ji mawashi. In 2026 the fourteen floats were in line on the Katori Kaidō road by about noon on the Saturday; after performances of Sawara-bayashi music and dance they set off in procession at 1:30 p.m. to the playing of the Tōshi Sagiri, and at about 4:30 p.m. they parted near Chūkei Bridge, each returning to its own neighbourhood. No-no-ji mawashi means pivoting a float weighing three to four tonnes on its front left wheel and turning it several times, as if a brush were writing the hiragana character の. It happens at no fixed times, whenever a float, hauled freely along its neighbourhood’s own route, passes one of the designated spots. On top of the floats stand giant figures made by doll-makers between the late Edo period and the early Shōwa era, among other displays; the Kami-Shinmachi float carries Suwa Daijin, the deity of Suwa Shrine itself. On the Friday afternoon the portable shrine is carried from Suwa Shrine to its temporary resting place in the town, and it returns to the shrine on the Sunday morning.

How to watch

In 2026 Katori City asked visitors not to bring or fly drones in the festival area and not to smoke in the street or drop litter, and warned that riding a bicycle on the stretches closed to traffic is a traffic offence. It also asks people not to park illegally on the surrounding roads or in the car parks of nearby shops. The festival goes ahead in the rain, when the figures on the floats are covered with plastic sheeting.

If you go

The festival takes place in the Shinjuku district around Suwa Shrine, and begins right outside Sawara Station on the JR Narita Line, about 110 minutes from Tokyo Station by rapid train. In 2026 the floats were hauled from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. each day, and a special limited express, the Ayame, ran from Shinjuku to Sawara at the weekend. Highway buses from Tokyo Station (about 85 minutes) also stop near Sawara Station. Drivers can use the temporary car park on the bank of the Tone River (about 1,000 spaces, free of charge in 2026), from which shuttle buses run; in 2026 a contribution of ¥500 per person (primary-school age and over) towards the running of the festival was requested. Katori City’s online festival map shows where each float is in real time.

Where

Sawara Shinjuku district (around Suwa Shrine)

Katori, Chiba

Open in maps

Sources

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