murmurKatsuyama Sagicho Festival
Katsuyama City · Throughout central Katsuyama
Dates and details can change. Always check the official website before you go.
Fukui Prefectural Tourism Association (fuku-e.com) · Last checked: Oct 11, 2026
Dates
Dates confirmed with official sources
- 2026
- Feb 21–22, 2026 （Ended） February 21 from 13:00: opening drum; February 22 from 20:00: Dondo-yaki bonfires (Benten riverside park)
- 2027
- Dates have not been announced yet. Please check the official website.
- Usual timing
- Usually late February
- How the date is set
- Changes from year to year A Saturday and Sunday in late February (varies by year)
- Venue
- Throughout central Katsuyama
- City
- Katsuyama City, Fukui
About
On a Saturday and Sunday in late February, Katsuyama's town center holds a Little New Year fire festival like no other. Twelve towers are raised in neighborhoods across town, and on each one adults in bright red under-kimonos and children dance and clown about to lively shamisen, flute and gong music, a scene found only in Katsuyama that has made it famous as an eccentric festival. On Sunday night the sacred objects from each neighborhood are gathered on the Benten riverbank, torches arrive with sacred fire lit at Shinmei Shrine, and on a smoke signal the Dondo-yaki bonfires all go up together. The festival goes back more than 300 years to the arrival of the Ogasawara lords; it was once tied to the fourteenth day of the first lunar month but moved to a February weekend for visitors and organizers. It is said to call spring to the Okuetsu region.
Sources
- OfficialFukui Prefectural Tourism Association (fuku-e.com) www.fuku-e.com
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.