murmurYasurai Matsuri at Imamiya Shrine
Kyoto City · Imamiya Shrine and the surrounding neighborhood
Dates and details can change. Always check the official website before you go.
Imamiya Shrine · Last checked: Oct 10, 2026
Dates
Dates confirmed with official sources
- 2026
- Sun, Apr 12, 2026 （Ended） Confirmed from the official annual schedule and Kyoto City Tourism Association (Kyoto Travel Navi)’s notice for that year
- 2027
- Dates have not been announced yet. Please check the official website.
- Usual timing
- Usually mid April
- How the date is set
- The 2nd Sunday of April Around 3 p.m., according to the shrine's event calendar
- Venue
- Imamiya Shrine and the surrounding neighborhood
- City
- Kyoto City, Kyoto
About
One of Kyoto's three "strange festivals", Yasurai Matsuri, also called Yasurai-bana, is a spring flower-calming rite handed down since the Heian period to quell epidemics and pray for peace. On the second Sunday of April, a procession of about twenty people, including red- and black-haired demons beating drums and gongs, dances through the neighborhood to the chant of "Yasurai hana ya" around a huge parasol decked with cherry, camellia, kerria, willow and young pine. At Imamiya Shrine the demons form a ring and perform their leaping dance before the gods, and you can compare the styles of the two groups, Kamino and Kawakami. Step under the flower parasol and, it is said, you will stay healthy for the year ahead.
Sources
- OfficialImamiya Shrine www.imamiyajinja.org
- OfficialImamiya Shrine www.imamiyajinja.org
- Date checkKyoto City Tourism Association (Kyoto Travel Navi) ja.kyoto.travel
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.