murmurTakisanji Oni Matsuri (Demon Fire Festival)
Okazaki City · Around Takisanji Temple
Dates and details can change. Always check the official website before you go.
Okazaki City Tourist Association · Last checked: Oct 10, 2026
Dates
Dates confirmed with official sources
- 2026
- Sat, Feb 21, 2026 （Ended）
- 2027
- Dates have not been announced yet. Please check the official website.
- Usual timing
- Usually mid February
- How the date is set
- Changes from year to year The Saturday closest to the seventh day of the lunar New Year
- Venue
- Around Takisanji Temple
- City
- Okazaki City, Aichi
About
On the Saturday nearest the seventh day of the lunar New Year, Takisanji Temple in Okazaki stages a fire festival to welcome spring and pray for peace and good harvests. Tradition credits Minamoto no Yoritomo with starting it as a prayer in the Kamakura period, and from the third Tokugawa shogun's time it was also a shogunate event. The evening opens with the Junin-shu, the twelve men who lead the festival, and a torch procession, then moves through halberd swinging, mock rice-farming rites and planting songs before peaking in the fire ritual. The giant torches, made by hand by the twelve, are a sight to see. It became a national intangible folk cultural property in 2025. The temple has no parking that day: leave your car at Ryuhoku Sports Park and take the temporary bus. Entry can be limited when crowds are heavy.
Sources
- OfficialOkazaki City Tourist Association okazaki-kanko.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.