murmurSakoshi Boat Festival
Ako City · Osake Shrine, Sakoshi Bay and Ikishima Island, Sakoshi
Dates and details can change. Always check the official website before you go.
Ako City · Last checked: Oct 10, 2026
Dates
Dates confirmed with official sources
- 2026
- Sun, Oct 11, 2026 （Ended） Confirmed from the official annual schedule and Kobe Shimbun’s notice for that year
- 2027
- Dates have not been announced yet. Please check the official website.
- Usual timing
- Usually mid October
- How the date is set
- The 2nd Sunday of October
- Venue
- Osake Shrine, Sakoshi Bay and Ikishima Island, Sakoshi
- City
- Ako City, Hyogo
About
Held on the second Sunday of October by Osake Shrine in Sakoshi, Ako, this festival is a national Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property. A dozen or more boats decked out with flags and banners cross the bay in a line to the shrine's resting place on Ikishima, an island protected as a national natural monument. Before they set off, the portable shrine and lion dancers come down the approach from the shrine to the beach once the ceremony there is over. After sunset the boats light their lanterns, and the glowing fleet on its way back is a sight of its own. It is counted with Osaka's Tenjin Matsuri and Miyajima's Kangensai among the three great boat festivals of the Seto Inland Sea, and as a tradition of a town that grew rich shipping salt, it forms part of two Japan Heritage stories, on the Kitamaebune trading ports and on salt making.
Sources
- OfficialAko City www.city.ako.lg.jp
- Date checkKobe Shimbun www.kobe-np.co.jp
- Reference浜辺で舞う男衆「バタカケ」勇壮に 赤穂「坂越の船祭」（神戸新聞NEXT） www.kobe-np.co.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
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.