murmurOnda Matsuri Rice-Planting Procession at Aso Shrine
Aso City · Aso Shrine and the surrounding rice paddies
Dates and details can change. Always check the official website before you go.
Aso Shrine · Last checked: Oct 10, 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 late July
- How the date is set
- Every year on July 28 A similar procession is held at Kokuzo Shrine on July 26
- Venue
- Aso Shrine and the surrounding rice paddies
- City
- Aso City, Kumamoto
About
In this summer rite at Aso Shrine, the gods ride out to inspect the green rice paddies around the shrine. Officially called Otaue Shinkoshiki and better known as the Onda Matsuri, it carries the shrine's twelve deities in four portable shrines to see how the young rice is coming along. About 200 people walk in the procession: mikoshi bearers, a lion, rice-planting dolls, dengaku musicians, young planting maidens and the unari, women in pure white who bring the gods their meals. Singing rice-field songs, the procession stops at two resting places, and at those spots and at the shrine, seedlings are thrown up onto the mikoshi roofs in a ritual planting. Two days before, on July 26, Kokuzo Shrine holds its own Onda procession.
Sources
- OfficialAso Shrine asojinja.or.jp
- OfficialKumamoto Prefecture (Kumamoto Culture Site) kumamoto.guide
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.