murmurMizukake Water-Splashing Festival at Kotoshironushi Shrine, Kariya
Awaji City · Kotoshironushi Shrine and the streets and harbor of Kariya
Dates and details can change. Always check the official website before you go.
Awaji Island Tourist Association · Last checked: Oct 10, 2026
Dates
Dates confirmed with official sources
- 2026
- Sun, Sep 20, 2026 （Ended）
- 2027
- Dates have not been announced yet. Please check the official website.
- Usual timing
- Usually mid September
- How the date is set
- The 3rd Sunday of September Third Sunday of September (planned)
- Venue
- Kotoshironushi Shrine and the streets and harbor of Kariya
- City
- Awaji City, Hyogo
About
On the third Sunday of September, the fishing town of Kariya in Awaji City holds this festival at Kotoshironushi Shrine to pray for good catches. As the portable shrine moves through town, people along the street throw water at it with full force, and the bearers push on through the spray. The finale comes when the shrine is carried straight into the sea. The festival is said to have begun in the early Meiji era, when local shipwrights donated the portable shrine to pray for the town's prosperity. Fights among the young bearers were once so common that it was also nicknamed the "fighting festival"; another story links that name to scrambles over the cloth wrapped around the shrine, long treasured as a charm for safe childbirth. Locals know the shrine as Kariya no Ebessan, guardian of the fishing harbor. By car it is about 8 minutes from Higashiura IC on the Kobe-Awaji-Naruto Expressway; by bus, get off at the Kariya stop on the Awa-shin Awa-hime line and walk about 3 minutes.
Sources
- OfficialAwaji Island Tourist Association www.awajishima-kanko.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.