All festivals

Festivals in Japan in May

Dates are computed from each festival’s rule, so future years work too

12

• 1 May 2027Toyama

  Takaoka Mikurumayama Festival

  高岡御車山祭

  The spring grand festival of Takaoka Sekino Shrine in Takaoka, Toyama. Seven mikurumayama, wheeled floats adorned with the town’s metalwork and lacquer, are pulled through the old castle town to elegant festival music. The festival and its floats are both designated Important Folk Cultural Properties. Held every year on 1 May.

• 2–4 May 2027Yamaguchi

  Senteisai Festival (Akama Shrine)

  先帝祭(赤間神宮)

  The festival of Akama Shrine in Shimonoseki, dedicated to Emperor Antoku, who drowned at the age of eight in the Battle of Dan-no-ura. On 3 May five tayū in sumptuous costume parade through the streets with a slow, sweeping gait, then cross a bridge laid in the shrine to pay their respects. Held every year from 2 to 4 May.

• 3–4 May 2027Fukuoka

  Hakata Dontaku

  博多どんたく港まつり

  Rice paddles clapped together in the street — by participant count, one of Japan's largest festivals.

• 3–5 May 2027Shizuoka

  Hamamatsu Festival

  浜松まつり

  Three days in May when Hamamatsu celebrates its firstborn children: by day, great kites fight to cut one another’s strings above the Nakatajima dunes; by night, carved palace floats roll through the city centre.

• 3–5 May 2027Ishikawa

  Seihakusai Festival (Dekayama)

  青柏祭(でか山)

  The spring festival of Otokonushi Shrine, also called Sannō Shrine, in Nanao, Ishikawa. Three dekayama, “giant floats” some 12 metres tall and 20 tonnes in weight, the largest in Japan, are hauled through the narrow streets topped with life-size figures from famous Kabuki scenes. Held every year from 3 to 5 May.

• 8–9 May 2027Tokyo

  Kanda Matsuri

  神田祭

  Kanda Myōjin's rite — the full version falls in odd-numbered years only.

• 14–16 May 2027Tokyo

  Sanja Matsuri

  三社祭

  Asakusa Shrine's rite: a hundred neighbourhood palanquins shaking Asakusa for three days.

• 15 May 2027Kyoto

  Aoi Matsuri

  葵祭

  The rite of the Kamo shrines, with a court-costumed procession walking from the old palace to the shrines.

• 15–16 May 2027Miyagi

  Sendai Aoba Festival

  仙台・青葉まつり

  Sendai’s early-summer festival, rooted in the city’s founder, the warlord Date Masamune. On Saturday the streets fill with the suzume odori sparrow dance; on Sunday floats and armoured warriors process along the zelkova-lined Jōzenji-dōri. Held every year on the third Sunday of May and the day before.

• 17–18 May 2027Tochigi

  Nikkō Tōshōgū Spring Festival

  日光東照宮春季大祭

  A thousand-strong warrior procession moving through the cedar avenue, in rites for Tokugawa Ieyasu.

• 19–30 May 2027Hokkaido

  Sapporo Lilac Festival

  さっぽろライラックまつり

  A secular early-summer festival that waits for the city’s official tree to bloom.

• 29–31 May 2027Fukushima

  Sōma Nomaoi

  相馬野馬追

  Some four hundred mounted samurai in armour, ancestral banners on their backs, race across an open field.