murmurNemuro Kotohira Shrine Grand Festival
Nemuro City · Kotohira Shrine and the streets of Nemuro
Dates and details can change. Always check the official website before you go.
Kotohira Shrine, Nemuro · Last checked: Oct 10, 2026
Dates
Dates confirmed with official sources
- 2026
- Dates have not been announced yet. Please check the official website.
- 2027
- Aug 9–11, 2027
- Usual timing
- Usually early August
- How the date is set
- Every year, August 9 – August 11 Returns to fixed dates, August 9 to 11, from the 2027 festival
- Venue
- Kotohira Shrine and the streets of Nemuro
- City
- Nemuro City, Hokkaido
About
Known locally as Nemuro's three hot days, the grand festival of Kotohira Shrine is a designated intangible folk cultural property of Hokkaido. It opens with an eve-of-festival rite, followed by the main ceremony and the outbound procession through the city, with the return procession on the final day. Led by costumed retainers, shrine maidens, a lion and the deity Sarutahiko, the splendid portable shrine, built in Kyoto in 1935, is carried by around 120 young men shouting as they go. Floats from the city's four festival districts follow with flutes, drums and children's portable shrines, stretching the parade to about 1 km and some 1,100 people. On the first two evenings all four districts take part in a performance called Sound and Power in front of the shrine's resting place, and Midori-cho street turns pedestrian-only and fills with stalls.
Sources
- OfficialKotohira Shrine, Nemuro www.nemuro-kotohira.com
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.