murmurTakabe Shrine Autumn Festival and Hochoshiki Knife Ceremony
Minamiboso City · Takabe Shrine, Chikura
Dates and details can change. Always check the official website before you go.
Chiba Prefectural Tourism and Products Association (Chiba Kanko Navi) · Last checked: Oct 11, 2026
Dates
Dates confirmed with official sources
- 2026
- Sat, Oct 17, 2026 Around 11:00–12:00
- 2027
- Dates have not been announced yet. Please check the official website.
- Usual timing
- Usually mid October
- How the date is set
- Every year on October 17
- Venue
- Takabe Shrine, Chikura
- City
- Minamiboso City, Chiba
About
Takabe Shrine in Chikura, Minamiboso, is said to be the only shrine in Japan devoted to Iwakamutsukari no Mikoto, the god of cooking, who appears in the Nihon Shoki chronicle and is also honored as a god of miso and soy sauce. At its autumn grand festival every October 17, the shrine presents the Hochoshiki, a revival of a Heian-period court ritual. Wearing tall eboshi caps and hitatare robes, the carvers prepare sea bream and other fish using nothing but a knife and long manabashi chopsticks, never once laying a hand on the fish. Once performed solely before the deity, the ritual is now open to the public and attracts both professional cooks and food lovers. At the shrine you can receive charms for better cooking and tenugui towels printed with the ceremony.
Sources
- OfficialChiba Prefectural Tourism and Products Association (Chiba Kanko Navi) maruchiba.jp
Last checked: Oct 11, 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.