murmurTenteko Matsuri at Niike Hachimansha Shrine
Nishio City · Niike Hachimansha Shrine, Niike-cho, Nishio
Dates and details can change. Always check the official website before you go.
Nishio City Tourism Association · Last checked: Oct 10, 2026
Dates
Dates confirmed with official sources
- 2026
- Sat, Jan 3, 2026 （Ended） Procession through the neighborhood from around 13:00
- 2027
- Dates have not been announced yet. Please check the official website.
- Usual timing
- Usually early January
- How the date is set
- Every year on January 3
- Venue
- Niike Hachimansha Shrine, Niike-cho, Nishio
- City
- Nishio City, Aichi
About
On the last day of the New Year holidays, Niike Hachimansha Shrine in Nishio holds a harvest festival with a famously odd cast. Men in their unlucky years, dressed in red from head to toe, walk the neighborhood with radishes shaped like phalluses dangling from their waists, swinging their hips to a drum whose beat sounds like "tenteko, tenteko." At the shrine, they sweep straw ash over the crowd with bamboo brooms; a dusting of ash is believed to keep misfortune away. Rice-planting songs follow in the worship hall while visitors throw in pine needles. Local tradition links the festival to the Heian period, when this land was chosen to grow sacred rice for Emperor Seiwa's enthronement rites. It is an Intangible Folk Cultural Property of Aichi Prefecture.
Sources
- OfficialNishio City Tourism Association nishiokanko.com
- OfficialAichi Prefecture Tourism and Convention Bureau (Aichi Now) aichinow.pref.aichi.jp
Last checked: Oct 10, 2026. Event information is based on official announcements, but changes may not always be reflected here. Please check each official website for accurate details.
Other events this month
On the day, see what locals are murmuring on the murmur map
murmur is an app that shows short, anonymous posts on a map, right where they were written. On festival day, open the map around the venue and see what people nearby are saying.