Kokura Gion Daiko

About

For the three days around the third Saturday of July, drums echo through Kokura in Kitakyushu for its Gion festival. Each cart carries a drum at the front and another at the back, and players beat both heads of the drum as they walk, a style you will hardly find anywhere else, layered with the metallic clang of jangara cymbals and the chants of the children hauling the carts. It became the first drumming tradition named a national Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property. The festival is said to have begun in 1617, when Hosokawa Tadaoki, who built Kokura Castle, copied Kyoto's Gion Matsuri to pray for the health and prosperity of his town, so it has some 400 years of history; the present cart style settled in during the Meiji and Taisho eras. Drum teams face off in a competition, and at the Omotenashi Daiko sessions visitors can pick up the sticks themselves.

Sources

• OfficialKokura Gion Daiko Preservation Society kokuragiondaiko.jp
• OfficialKitakyushu City (Kokura Kita Ward Office) www.city.kitakyushu.lg.jp
• OfficialFukuoka Prefecture Tourism Association (Crossroad Fukuoka) www.crossroadfukuoka.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

• Hakata Gion Yamakasa
• Amagi Gion Yamakasa
• Tobata Gion Oyamakasa
• Omuta Daijayama Festival