murmurUeno Tenjin Festival
Iga City · Ueno Tenjin-gu (Sugawara Shrine) and the old castle town of Iga-Ueno
Dates and details can change. Always check the official website before you go.
Mie Prefecture Tourism Federation (Kanko Mie) · Last checked: Oct 11, 2026
Dates
Dates confirmed with official sources
- 2026
- Oct 23–25, 2026
- 2027
- Dates have not been announced yet. Please check the official website.
- Usual timing
- Usually late October
- How the date is set
- Changes from year to year Three days ending on the last Sunday on or before October 25 (the main procession day)
- Venue
- Ueno Tenjin-gu (Sugawara Shrine) and the old castle town of Iga-Ueno
- City
- Iga City, Mie
About
For 3 days each autumn, the castle town of Iga-Ueno fills with danjiri floats and demons for the festival of Ueno Tenjin-gu (Sugawara Shrine), the biggest in Iga. On Friday evening each neighborhood sets its danjiri out on a street corner, on Saturday the demon procession walks Sannomachi-suji, and at night the lantern-lit danjiri make the rounds of Honmachi-dori. The main event is Sunday's shinkosai: led by the portable-shrine procession, a parade of demons, including En no Gyoja and the warrior Chinzei Hachiro Tametomo, and 9 danjiri hung with gorgeous curtains take all day to circle the old town. Demons making little children cry is a time-honored part of it. The danjiri events are a National Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property and joined UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2016. It all happens in the streets right by Uenoshi Station on the Iga Railway.
Sources
- OfficialMie Prefecture Tourism Federation (Kanko Mie) www.kankomie.or.jp
- OfficialUeno Culture and Fine Arts Preservation Society ueno-tenjin-matsuri.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.