Festivals in Japan in January
Dates are computed from each festival’s rule, so future years work too
8
- 31 December 2026 – 1 January 2027Yamagata
Shōreisai, Mount Haguro
羽黒山松例祭
On New Year’s Eve, on the summit of Mount Haguro, two mountain ascetics come to the end of a hundred days’ seclusion, and their power is tested by fire.
- 1–2 January 2027Gunma
Takasaki Daruma Market
高崎だるま市
Billed as the earliest daruma market in Japan, it fills the main street outside the west exit of Takasaki Station in Gunma on New Year’s Day and the day after. Stalls of Takasaki daruma line the road, crowded with people buying a lucky daruma for the year ahead. Held every year on 1 and 2 January.
- 6–7 January 2027Gunma
Shōrinzan Daruma Market (Nanakusa Festival)
少林山七草大祭だるま市
The New Year fair at Shōrinzan Darumaji in Takasaki, Gunma, the temple where the lucky daruma doll was born. Daruma stalls fill the grounds, and from the 6th into the 7th worshippers come through the night for the temple’s star-festival prayers. Held every year on 6 and 7 January.
- 7 January 2027Fukuoka
Oniyo
鬼夜
On the seventh day of the year, six great torches repeat a legend about hunting a bandit by firelight.
- 9–11 January 2027Osaka
Tōka Ebisu
十日戎
A shrine founded to guard a marketplace, and three days in which a million people come to ask for a good year of trade.
- 14 January 2027Miyagi
Matsutaki Matsuri at Ōsaki Hachimangū
大崎八幡宮松焚祭
A procession that cannot speak — paper held in the mouth — walks to the fire by the sound of bells alone.
- 15 January 2027Nagano
Nozawa Onsen Dōsojin Fire Festival
野沢温泉の道祖神祭り
A midwinter fire festival in which the village men storm a towering wooden shrine with torches while the men of the unlucky ages defend it.
- 23 January 2027Nara
Wakakusa Yamayaki
若草山焼き
Fire carried over from another rite, spread across a hillside by the city’s firefighters.