murmurMamihara Hibuse Jizo Festival
Yamato Town · Mamihara, Yamato (around the Mamihara shopping street and the Hibuse Jizo hall)
Dates and details can change. Always check the official website before you go.
Kumamoto Prefecture (Kumamoto Culture Site) · 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 August
- How the date is set
- Changes from year to year Two days in late August
- Venue
- Mamihara, Yamato (around the Mamihara shopping street and the Hibuse Jizo hall)
- City
- Yamato Town, Kumamoto
About
For two days at the end of summer, Mamihara in Yamato Town, right on the Kumamoto-Miyazaki border and once a busy post town on the Hyuga road, holds a festival said to be more than 300 years old. It is said to date from 1563, when the first head of the Hatta family moved a Jizo statue from Ryusenji temple to today's Jizo hall to pray for protection against fire. The hall is hung with lanterns and banners, visitors receive fire-protection charms, and tsukurimono, figures assembled from everyday goods, are offered all around town. The first afternoon brings a memorial service and the neighborhood music floats paying their respects at the hall before touring the streets. Day two has a morning parade of local groups, an afternoon tsukurimono parade and the naked mikoshi, when men in loincloths carry the Jizo into the Mamihara River and douse it with water, then fireworks to finish. Locals also call the festival niwaka.
Sources
- OfficialKumamoto Prefecture (Kumamoto Culture Site) kumamoto.guide
- OfficialKumamoto Prefecture Tourism Federation (Kumamoto official travel 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.