Festivals in Japan in August
Dates are computed from each festival’s rule, so future years work too
23
- 31 July 2027 – 4 August 2027Aomori
Hachinohe Sansha Taisai
八戸三社大祭
The joint festival of three shrines in central Hachinohe. Behind the shrine processions come floats up to eleven metres tall, rebuilt every year, that unfold their mechanical scenery as they move through the town. Held every year from 31 July to 4 August.
- 31 July 2027 – 1 August 2027Mie
Kuwana Ishidori Festival
桑名石取祭
The festival of Kuwana Sōja Shrine, also called Kasuga Shrine, in Kuwana, Mie. Some forty lavishly decorated festival carts, each carrying gongs and drums, are pulled round the town beating them day and night, earning it the name “the noisiest festival in Japan”. Held every year on the first Sunday of August, the main day, and the Saturday before.
- 1–4 August 2027Iwate
Morioka Sansa Odori
盛岡さんさ踊り
A dance festival known for the sheer number of drums, rooted in a legend about a demon's handprint.
- 1–5 August 2027Hokkaido
Hakodate Port Festival
函館港まつり
Begun as the first anniversary of recovery from a catastrophic fire; now five days of residents walking their city.
- 1–7 August 2027Aomori
Hirosaki Neputa Matsuri
弘前ねぷたまつり
Some seventy illuminated floats, most of them fan-shaped and painted with warriors from Chinese epics, parade through a castle town.
- 2–7 August 2027Aomori
Aomori Nebuta Matsuri
青森ねぶた祭
Vast illuminated floats of warriors and deities, moved through the city by drums, flutes and dancers.
- 2–3 August 2027Niigata
Nagaoka Fireworks Festival
長岡まつり大花火大会
A fireworks display over the Shinano River, held in memory of those killed in the 1945 air raid on Nagaoka and as a prayer for peace. Known for its giant shōsanshakudama shells and the Phoenix display, it is counted among Japan’s three great fireworks festivals. Held every year on 2 and 3 August.
- 3–6 August 2027Akita
Akita Kantō Matsuri
秋田竿燈まつり
Long poles hung with lantern "rice sacks", balanced on a forehead, a hip, a shoulder.
- 5–7 August 2027Yamagata
Yamagata Hanagasa Matsuri
山形花笠まつり
Safflower-decked straw hats spun in formation down the main avenue.
- 6–8 August 2027Miyagi
Sendai Tanabata Matsuri
仙台七夕まつり
Washi streamers filling the covered arcades, keeping Tanabata on the old calendar.
- 6–8 August 2027Gunma
Kiryu Yagibushi Festival
桐生八木節まつり
A summer festival in the centre of Kiryū, Gunma. Crowds dance around towers set up in the streets to the Yagibushi folk song, sung to the beat of a barrel drum, gongs and flutes, and the portable shrine of the Kiryū Gion Festival, dating from the Edo period, is carried through town. Held every year for three days from the first Friday of August.
- 9–12 August 2027Kōchi
Yosakoi Matsuri
よさこい祭り
Clappers in both hands, and a deliberately open-ended choreography — a postwar invention.
- 11–15 August 2027Tokushima
Awa Odori
阿波踊り
Bon dance at city scale: troupes called ren moving through the streets with their own musicians.
- 13–15 August 2027Tottori
Tottori Shanshan Matsuri
鳥取しゃんしゃん祭
A local umbrella dance simplified so anyone can join — and four thousand people swing at once.
- 13–16 August 2027Gifu
Gujō Odori
郡上おどり
A bon dance you join rather than watch — some thirty nights a summer, and through to dawn for the four nights of Obon.
- 14–16 August 2027Ōita
Himeshima Bon Dance
姫島盆踊り
The Bon dance of Himeshima, an island off the Kunisaki Peninsula in Oita. Led by the Fox Dance of children dressed as foxes, traditional dances and new ones created every year are performed in turn at dance grounds in each of the island’s districts and on the harbour square. Held every year from 14 to 16 August.
- 15–16 August 2027Kumamoto
Yamaga Tōrō Matsuri
山鹿灯籠まつり
Gold lanterns made of paper and glue alone, balanced on the head, danced by a thousand women.
- 15 August 2027Nagasaki
Shōrō Nagashi (Spirit Boat Procession)
精霊流し
Families who have lost someone since the last Bon season pull hand-built spirit boats, carrying the souls of the dead, through the centre of Nagasaki to the places where the boats are given up, amid clanging bells, chants of “dōi, dōi” and deafening firecrackers. There is no organiser: each family sends off its own boat. Held every year on the night of 15 August.
- 15–17 August 2027Shizuoka
Mishima Taisai Festival
三嶋大祭り(三島夏まつり)
A summer festival in the old town of Mishima, Shizuoka, held around the annual festival of Mishima Taisha, the leading shrine of the old province of Izu. Floats from the host neighbourhoods tour the town to the brisk festival music called shagiri, and at night they face off in front of the shrine’s great torii. There is also a procession recalling Minamoto no Yoritomo’s call to arms, and mounted archery. Held every year from 15 to 17 August.
- 16–18 August 2027Akita
Nishimonai Bon Odori
西馬音内盆踊り
Along the main street of Nishimonai in Ugo, Akita, dancers with their faces hidden under deep straw hats or black hoods move slowly and gracefully by the light of bonfires late into the night. It was the first Bon dance in Japan to be designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property. Held every year from 16 to 18 August.
- 16 August 2027Kyoto
Gozan Okuribi (Five Mountain Bonfires)
京都五山送り火
Kyoto’s summer rite for sending the spirits of the ancestors back after Obon. From 8 p.m., fires lit one after another on the mountains around the city trace the character for “great” (Daimonji), the words myō and hō, a boat, a second “great” and a shrine gate. Held every year on 16 August.
- 26–27 August 2027Yamanashi
Yoshida Fire Festival
吉田の火祭り
Every 26 and 27 August, at the foot of Mount Fuji, rows of three-metre torches turn the streets of Fujiyoshida into a river of fire in the festival of Kitaguchi Hongū Fuji Sengen Shrine and Suwa Shrine.
- 28–29 August 2027Tokyo
Tokyo Koenji Awa Odori
東京高円寺阿波おどり
Dance troupes called ren move through the shopping streets around JR Kōenji Station and along Kōnan-dōri, each with its own band of drums, gongs and flutes. Begun by a local shopping street in 1957, it has grown into one of Tokyo’s largest dance festivals. Held over a Saturday and Sunday in late August.