murmurKagoshima Jingu Hatsuuma-sai (Dancing Horse Festival)
Kirishima City · Kagoshima Jingu Shrine and its surroundings
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, Mar 8, 2026 （Ended）
- 2027
- Sun, Feb 28, 2027
- Usual timing
- Usually early March
- How the date is set
- Changes from year to year The first Sunday after the eighteenth day of the first month of the old lunar calendar
- Venue
- Kagoshima Jingu Shrine and its surroundings
- City
- Kirishima City, Kagoshima
About
This spring festival at Kagoshima Jingu Shrine in Kirishima features dancing horses. Suzukake-uma, horses with ornaments on their backs and bells hanging from their necks, lead the dance troupes and step in time to drums and shamisen, something you will rarely see elsewhere in Japan. More than twenty horses and about 2,000 dancers take part, so the grounds and nearby streets are packed all day. It is said to have started some 470 years ago in the Muromachi period, when Lord Shimazu Takahisa and others dreamed of the horse-headed Kannon, built a hall for it and came to worship leading decorated horses. The prayers are for good harvests, family safety, thriving livestock and warding off bad luck. Roads near the shrine are restricted, so trains or buses are the easier option.
Sources
- OfficialKagoshima Prefectural Visitors Bureau www.kagoshima-kankou.com
- OfficialKirishima City www.city-kirishima.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.