murmurKiwa Fire Festival
Kumano City · Ogawaguchi riverbank, Kiwa-cho, Kumano
Dates and details can change. Always check the official website before you go.
Mie Tourism Federation (Kanko Mie) · Last checked: Oct 11, 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 early August
- How the date is set
- The 1st Saturday of August First Saturday of August every year
- Venue
- Ogawaguchi riverbank, Kiwa-cho, Kumano
- City
- Kumano City, Mie
About
On the first Saturday of August, the riverbank at Ogawaguchi in Kiwa, Kumano, hosts a summer festival built around the Hashira Matsuri. A bamboo basket is fixed to the top of a cedar pole about 20 m tall, and participants spin burning torches on cords and fling them up at it. Sending misfortune off into the night with the flames, the rite has long been practiced along the Kumano River to pray for the safety of the raftsmen who floated timber downstream, for good health and for big catches. It died out for a while and was revived in 1989. Doro-ryu taiko drumming, the thundering Kitayama-zutsu and fireworks round out the summer night.
Sources
- OfficialMie Tourism Federation (Kanko Mie) www.kankomie.or.jp
- OfficialKumano City Tourism Association www.kumano-kankou.info
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.