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Guide to Summer Festivals in Japan
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items If you're traveling in Japan this summer, don't miss out on the festivals! I know it's hot, but most of these festivals go into the night and are worth going outside for
August 12 to 16, 2026, at Tomioka Hachimangu Shrine in Koto ward. This is the "fundoshi one" your video opens with, nicknamed the water-throwing festival: 54 neighborhood portable shrines are carried an 8km route while spectators and firefighters dre...
Fukagawa Hachiman Matsuri (Tokyo)
All of July 2026; the two Yamaboko Junko float processions are July 17 and July 24, with Yoiyama eve-parties July 14 to 16 and July 21 to 23. Central Kyoto, around Yasaka Shrine. Japan's most famous festival, running since 869, known for hand-pulled ...
Gion Matsuri (Kyoto)
July 24 to 25, 2026 (same dates every year; main events on the 25th). Osaka Tenmangu Shrine and the Okawa River. A "fire and water" festival and one of Japan's three greatest: a 3,000-person costumed land procession, roughly 100 lantern-lit boats on ...
Tenjin Matsuri (Osaka)
August 3 to 6, 2026, in central Akita City. Performers balance bamboo poles up to 12m tall and 50kg, strung with 46 lit lanterns, shifting them onto their foreheads, shoulders, palms, and lower backs. One of Tohoku's three great festivals. Free roads...
Kanto Matsuri (Akita)
Roughly 30 nights from mid-July to early September 2026; the all-night Tetsuya Odori runs August 13 to 16. Gujo Hachiman, a castle town in Gifu. Japan's longest-running Bon dance, with no stage and no audience: everyone dances in a circle through the...
Gujo Odori (Gifu)
August 2 to 7, 2026, in central Aomori City. Giant illuminated washi-paper floats of warriors and gods hauled through the streets with taiko drums and leaping "haneto" dancers, capped by a bay fireworks finale on August 7. Tohoku's biggest. Free curb...
Aomori Nebuta Matsuri (Aomori)
August 6 to 8, 2026, in downtown Sendai's arcades. The country's grandest star festival: thousands of huge handmade paper-and-bamboo streamers hang the length of the shopping streets. Free.
Sendai Tanabata Matsuri (Miyagi)
August 11 to 15, 2026 (main street dancing August 12 to 15), Tokushima City, Shikoku. Japan's largest dance festival, 400 years old, drawing over a million people to the chant that fools dance and fools watch, so you might as well dance. Free street ...
Awa Odori (Tokushima)
August 5 to 7, 2026, central Yamagata City. Around 10,000 dancers parade with flower-decorated straw hats (hanagasa) to the "Yassho, makasho" chant. One of the five great festivals of Tohoku. Free; some paid seating.
Yamagata Hanagasa Matsuri (Yamagata)
August 2 to 3, 2026, on the Shinano River (2026 is the 100th anniversary). One of Japan's three great fireworks festivals, famous for the "Phoenix" shells that stretch about 2km across the sky. Every seat is paid and lottery-based, so packaged tours ...
Nagaoka Matsuri Fireworks (Niigata)
Saturday, July 25, 2026, 7:00 to 8:30pm, near Asakusa. Tokyo's oldest and biggest fireworks night, about 20,000 shells from two sites, with roots in an 18th-century Edo memorial. Free from the banks; the commissionable angle is a dinner cruise or the...
Sumida River Fireworks (Tokyo)
August 9 to 12, 2026, Kochi City, Shikoku. The high-energy modern dance festival that launched the nationwide Yosakoi movement in 1954. Teams dance through the streets holding wooden "naruko" clappers, mixing traditional and contemporary music. Free;...
Yosakoi Matsuri (Kochi)
September 1 to 3, 2026, in Yatsuo, Toyama. The quiet, elegant close of festival season: dancers in straw hats move slowly through lantern-lit lanes to the melancholy kokyu fiddle, a dance meant to calm the autumn typhoon winds. Free.
Owara Kaze no Bon (Toyama)
July 14, 2026, at Kumano Nachi Taisha by Nachi Falls. Twelve men carry 50kg flaming torches to purify twelve tall portable shrines in front of Japan's highest waterfall. One of the country's most dramatic fire rituals. Free.
Kumano Nachi Fire Festival (Wakayama)
August 15 to 16, 2026, in Yamaga. Women dance in yukata balancing gold-and-white paper lanterns on their heads, building to a finale of a thousand dancers glowing in the dark. Free; some paid seating.
Yamaga Toro Matsuri (Kumamoto)
July 13 to 16, 2026, at Yasukuni Shrine, Chiyoda. An Obon festival where about 30,000 lit paper lanterns line the shrine approach, with food stalls and evening performances. Free.
Mitama Matsuri (Tokyo)