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July 2019
Sumiyoshi-san Summer Festival
Sumiyoshi-san, along with the Tokasan and Ebessan festivals, is one of Hiroshima city's big three annual shrine festivals that have long histories. Sumiyoshi Shrines are dedicated to water gods and Sumiyoshi Shrine is located right next to the river in Sumiyoshi-cho on Route 2. It's a real local festival and the neighborhood streets are lined with the usual festival food and game stalls. Many people visit the shrine over the two days to pray for good health and good fortune.…
Find out more »Wednesday Night Kagura
Join local kagura fans for two performances of this spectacular folk art.
Find out more »Miyajima Kangensai
2018 Kangensai events have been CANCELLED due to incoming typhoon #12.
Find out more »Kendama World Cup
Surprisingly exciting event where competitors from around the world do amazing things with this traditional Japanese toy.
Find out more »Yoshida Isshin Festival
2300 fireworks, taiko drumming, dance performances, bon odori dancing and period reenactments. Fireworks 20:50~ Postponed until the following day in the event of rain. See our guide to all the local fireworks displays over the summer here.
Find out more »An Evening of Kagura
Kagura performances with English explanation, subtitles, Q&A and photo session.
Find out more »Onomichi Saturday Night Market
Onomichi's Saturday Night Market (doyou-yomise) is as much festival as shopping expedition. On Saturday nights in June and July the town's usually quiet shotengai retro shopping arcade buzzes with people buying nicknacks and playing traditional festival games. It gets particularly colorful from the end of June when the arcade is festooned with tanabata star festival streamers.
Find out more »Iwakuni Port Fireworks Festival
2000 blasts at a small (and thus we hear, relatively uncrowded) fireworks festival. Postponed in the event of rain. There are some nice shots of this display from 2014 on this Japanese blog. Access: 15 minutes by bus from Iwakuni JR Station
Find out more »Nagato Senzaki Fireworks Festival
A display of 3000 fireworks in Nagao in Yamaguchi Prefecture which attracts about 35,000 people. Postponed until July 23 in the event of rain.
Find out more »Innoshima Suigun Fireworks Festival
2500 bangs packed into 30 minutes with the waters of the Seto Inland Sea and shadows of the surrounding islands as a backdrop on the rural island of Innoshima. The whole display is packed into just half an hour, making for quite some impact. Two blasts selected by popular vote. This is quite far off the beaten track so should be a very local and fun event and international visitors are bound to turn a few heads as they wander…
Find out more »Numata Hongo Fireworks Festival
This now colorful summer festival has somewhat dark origins. It has grown out of an event to mourn the large numbers of people lost due to famine and disease during the great famines of the Tempo Era in the first half of the 19th century. Over time the event turned into a chance for local farmers and farm workers to let off steam once the hard task of rice planting was complete. Today, the festival features a fireworks display of…
Find out more »Kagura Koshien in Akitakata
Free bus trip for foreign residents and visitors to a day of Kagura dance in the countryside.
Find out more »English Kagura Experience
Kagura performances with English explanation, subtitles, Q&A and photo session.
Find out more »Onomichi Sumiyoshi Fireworks Festival
13,000 fireworks explode over the Onomichi sea channel.
Find out more »Hiroshima Port “Dream” Fireworks Festival
2018 event has been CANCELLED due to incoming typhoon #12.
Find out more »August 2019
English Kagura Experience
Kagura performances with English explanation, subtitles, Q&A and photo session.
Find out more »A Summer Evening of Prayer & Peace
On the night of August 5, the string of temples and shrines in Futaba-no-sato, originally constructed to protect the castle town of Hiroshima from misfortune that was said to come from the inauspicious northeast direction, are illuminated by candles and decorated with flowers to comfort the souls of the victims of the A-bombing and to wish for peace throughout the world. All are welcome and there is no charge to participate. You can go wander around the shrines and temples…
Find out more »English Kagura Experience
Kagura performances with English explanation, subtitles, Q&A and photo session.
Find out more »Hiroshima Bon Dance
Bon-odori are community dances, usually performed around a tall platform from which music plays and people sometimes play instruments and sing, held during the 0-bon festival of the dead, usually held in the middle of August. It is a little known fact that just a year after the A-bombing of Hiroshima, survivors held a bon-odori on the day after the first anniversary of the bombing. This year, on August 11, the event is to be revived and held for the…
Find out more »English Kagura Experience
Kagura performances with English explanation, subtitles, Q&A and photo session.
Find out more »Senda Wasshoi Matsuri Flea Market
Relatively large flea market in Higashi Senda-machi Park next to the old Hiroshima University building. There are also food stalls and live bands performing on a little stage, which help to give the event quite a lively atmosphere. Postponed until August 25 in the event of heavy rain. To sign up to sell at the flea market Call (in Japanese) more than one week prior to the event 090-9500-6554 between 10am and 6pm and give your name and the date…
Find out more »English Kagura Experience
Kagura performances with English explanation, subtitles, Q&A and photo session.
Find out more »September 2019
English Kagura Experience
Kagura performances with English explanation, subtitles, Q&A and photo session.
Find out more »Senda Wasshoi Matsuri Flea Market
Relatively large flea market in Higashi Senda-machi Park next to the old Hiroshima University building. There are also food stalls and live bands performing on a little stage, which help to give the event quite a lively atmosphere. Postponed until September 23 in the event of heavy rain. To sign up to sell at the flea market Call (in Japanese) more than one week prior to the event 090-9500-6554 between 10am and 6pm and give your name and the date…
Find out more »Kangetsu Moon Viewing Tea Ceremony
The end of September is the time for "moon viewing" or kangetsu in Japan and a moon viewing tea ceremony is held in Shukkei-en Garden annually at this time. ¥800 for the (more formal) tea ceremony in a tea house (honseki) ¥600 to take tea in the gardens (nodate) The garden admission fee is also required (adults ¥260) and the garden is open to until 9pm. The neighboring Prefectural Art Museum where the Da Vinci exhibition is currently showing also has…
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