murmurNihonmatsu Lantern Festival
Nihonmatsu City · Nihonmatsu Shrine and central Nihonmatsu
Dates and details can change. Always check the official website before you go.
Nihonmatsu City Tourism Federation · Last checked: Oct 11, 2026
Dates
Dates confirmed with official sources
- 2026
- Oct 3–5, 2026 （Ended）
- 2027
- Dates have not been announced yet. Please check the official website.
- Usual timing
- Usually early October
- How the date is set
- The 1st Saturday of October Every year on the first Saturday, Sunday and Monday of October (since 2019)
- Venue
- Nihonmatsu Shrine and central Nihonmatsu
- City
- Nihonmatsu City, Fukushima
About
Each autumn, the grand festival of Nihonmatsu Shrine fills the town with lantern light. The best time to go is the first night: 7 drum floats, one from each district, are crammed with lanterns, their red lanterns lit from the shrine's bonfire, and they roll through town to festival music and the shouts of the young men, with roughly 3,000 lanterns glowing in all. Day two features the mikoshi procession, and on day three the floats tour their districts and join in combined parades until late. Tradition credits Niwa Mitsushige, lord of Nihonmatsu Castle, who enshrined the shrine in the 1660s and opened it to everyone in his domain. It is an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property of Fukushima Prefecture. In 2026 it ran October 3 to 5.
Sources
- OfficialNihonmatsu City Tourism Federation www.nihonmatsu-kanko.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.