murmurOka-sai Cherry Blossom Festival at Kotohira-gu
Kotohira Town · Main Shrine (Gohongu), Kotohira-gu
Dates and details can change. Always check the official website before you go.
Kotohira-gu Shrine · Last checked: Oct 11, 2026
Dates
Dates not confirmed
- 2026
- Dates have not been announced yet. Please check the official website.
- 2027
- Dates have not been announced yet. Please check the official website.
- Usual timing
- Usually early April
- How the date is set
- Every year on April 10
- Venue
- Main Shrine (Gohongu), Kotohira-gu
- City
- Kotohira Town, Kagawa
About
Oka-sai is a spring rite at Kotohira-gu and a form of chinkasai, a ceremony to calm the blossoms. People once believed that as cherry petals fell, the spirits of disease scattered with them, and the festival aims to settle them and ward off illness. The chief priest reads a prayer, the Yamato-mai and Yaotome-mai dances are offered, and the altar is laid with food from the sea, rivers, mountains and fields, each set off with a sprig of cherry. Priests and shrine maidens used to walk to the Main Shrine under the trees behind a large blossom branch, but the shrine has said that procession will be dropped, as a warming climate makes it hard to match the bloom. The ceremony itself carries on at the Main Shrine. Around 3,500 cherry trees grow in the grounds, and the Sakura-no-baba section of the main approach is a well-known viewing spot.
Sources
- OfficialKotohira-gu Shrine www.konpira.or.jp
- OfficialKotohira-gu Shrine www.konpira.or.jp
- OfficialKotohira-gu Shrine www.konpira.or.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.