Festivals in Japan in October
Dates are computed from each festival’s rule, so future years work too
15
- 7–9 October 2027Nagasaki
Nagasaki Kunchi
長崎くんち
Suwa Shrine's rite, whose dedicated performances carry Chinese and Dutch elements in solution.
- 8–10 October 2027Chiba
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.
- 9–10 October 2027Gifu
Takayama Autumn Festival
秋の高山祭(八幡祭)
Sakurayama Hachimangū's rite — Takayama's other festival, with a different set of floats.
- 9–10 October 2027Hiroshima
Sake Matsuri, Saijō
酒まつり(西条)
Sake from the whole country gathers in a brewing town — two days with no rite in them.
- 9–11 October 2027Okinawa
Naha Ōtsunahiki
那覇大綱挽まつり
On a city-centre highway junction, locals and visitors split into East and West and pull against each other on one enormous rope.
- 9–11 October 2027Kagawa
Kotohira-gū Reitaisai (Grand Festival)
金刀比羅宮例大祭
The most important festival of Kotohira-gū in Kotohira, Kagawa. On the night of the 10th a golden portable shrine and a procession of some 600 people, led by children on horseback and in palanquins, descend the stone steps from the main shrine to a resting place in the town below. Held every year from 9 to 11 October.
- 9–10 October 2027Tochigi
Kanuma Autumn Festival (Imamiya Shrine Festival)
鹿沼秋まつり(今宮神社祭)
The annual festival of Imamiya Shrine in Kanuma, Tochigi. Festival wagons covered all over in carving, likened to a moving Yōmeimon gate of Nikkō, are pulled through the town to festival music, and at crossroads they face each other in duels of drumming. Held every year on the Saturday and Sunday before Sports Day in October.
- 14–15 October 2027Hyōgo
Nada Kenka Matsuri
灘のけんか祭り
The “fighting festival” of Matsubara Hachiman Shrine in Himeji, held every 14 and 15 October: seven districts parade ornate floats, and three portable shrines are rammed into one another.
- 14–17 October 2027Ehime
Saijō Festival
西条まつり
The collective name for the autumn festivals of four shrines in Saijō, Ehime. Well over a hundred festival floats — danjiri, portable shrines and drum floats carved with warriors, flowers and birds — are paraded through the town to the singing of Ise ondo, said to be more than at any other festival in Japan. At its heart is the festival of Isono Shrine; every year from 14 to 17 October the festivals of the Iwaoka, Isono and Iizumi shrines follow one another.
- 16–18 October 2027Ehime
Niihama Taiko Matsuri
新居浜太鼓祭り
Vast gold-embroidered drum floats hoisted on shoulders, and set against each other by district.
- 16–17 October 2027Saitama
Kawagoe Matsuri
川越まつり
Floats modelled on those of old Edo’s shrine festivals meet face to face among Kawagoe’s merchant storehouses and duel in music.
- 16–17 October 2027Aichi
Nagoya Festival
名古屋まつり
Nagoya’s biggest autumn festival, centred on a parade in which the three great warlords, Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu, march through the city with their armoured retinues, followed by floats with mechanical puppets and cars dressed in flowers. It began in 1955. Usually held on the third Saturday of October and the Sunday after.
- 22 October 2027Kyoto
Jidai Matsuri
時代祭
Heian Shrine's rite: a thousand years of costume, walked past in chronological order.
- 22 October 2027Kyoto
Kurama Fire Festival
鞍馬の火祭
A mountain village filled with burning pine torches — held on the same night as Jidai Matsuri.
- 22–24 October 2027Mie
Ueno Tenjin Festival
上野天神祭
The autumn festival of Ueno Tenjin Shrine (Sugawara Shrine) in Iga, Mie, in which a procession of more than a hundred masked demons and nine danjiri floats wind through the old castle town. Held over three days, Friday to Sunday, ending on the last Sunday on or before 25 October.