murmurKobari Matsushita-ryu Tsunabi (Fireworks Puppetry)
Tsukubamirai City · Kobari Atago Shrine
Dates and details can change. Always check the official website before you go.
Tsukubamirai City Board of Education · Last checked: Oct 10, 2026
Dates
Dates confirmed with official sources
- 2026
- Mon, Aug 24, 2026 （Ended） From around 19:00
- 2027
- Dates have not been announced yet. Please check the official website.
- Usual timing
- Usually late August
- How the date is set
- Every year on August 24 Preceded by the kurikomi procession on the evening of August 23
- Venue
- Kobari Atago Shrine
- City
- Tsukubamirai City, Ibaraki
About
Every August, a tsunabi performance is offered at the festival of Kobari Atago Shrine in Tsukubamirai. Tsunabi is a traditional art in which mechanical puppets travel along ropes strung through the air, acting out a puppet play to festival music and set-piece fireworks; it was named an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property of Japan in 1976. The festival opens with a procession on the evening of August 23, and the tsunabi is performed the following night, August 24. The Kobari Matsushita style is said to have been invented by Matsushita Iwami-no-kami Shigetsuna, lord of Kobari Castle, who staged it in camp to celebrate victory and mourn those who fell. Its techniques, including the mixing of gunpowder, were passed to his retainer Ohashi Kichizaemon, giving rise to the Matsushita-ryu name, and today a preservation society performs it to ward off fire and pray for good harvests.
Sources
- OfficialTsukubamirai City Board of Education www.city.tsukubamirai.lg.jp
- OfficialTsukubamirai City Tourism Association mirai-kankou.com
- OfficialIbaraki Prefectural Tourism & Local Products Association (Visit Ibaraki) www.ibarakiguide.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.