murmurSoga-don no Kasayaki (Umbrella Burning)
Kagoshima City · Ishibashi Memorial Park
Dates and details can change. Always check the official website before you go.
Kagoshima Prefectural Visitors Bureau · Last checked: Oct 11, 2026
Dates
Dates confirmed with official sources
- 2026
- Sun, Jul 19, 2026 （Ended） From 19:00 (fire lit around 20:00)
- 2027
- Dates have not been announced yet. Please check the official website.
- Usual timing
- Usually mid July
- How the date is set
- Announced each year Held in July; the date is announced each year
- Venue
- Ishibashi Memorial Park
- City
- Kagoshima City, Kagoshima
About
On a summer night by the Kotsuki River in Kagoshima City, one of Kagoshima's three great traditional events is held. Once the stack of paper umbrellas on the riverbank catches fire, flames shoot up into the darkness in a scene that is both powerful and strangely beautiful. The same evening offers Satsuma umbrella dances, poetry chanting, sword dances and a display of the Yakumaru Jigen-ryu sword style, a good sampling of Satsuma traditions. The story behind it is that the Soga brothers of the Kamakura period burned rain umbrellas as torches on the night they avenged their father. It started in the Edo period as part of goju, the Satsuma domain's own system of educating young men.
Sources
- OfficialKagoshima Prefectural Visitors Bureau www.kagoshima-kankou.com
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.