murmurSakabe Winter Festival
Tenryu Village · Omoriyama Suwa Shrine, Sakabe
Dates and details can change. Always check the official website before you go.
Tenryu Village · 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 January
- How the date is set
- Every year on January 4 Runs from the evening through to around midday the next day
- Venue
- Omoriyama Suwa Shrine, Sakabe
- City
- Tenryu Village, Nagano
About
Every New Year season, the Sakabe district at the southern tip of Tenryu Village, on the west bank of the Tenryu River facing Aichi Prefecture, holds this winter festival at Omoriyama Suwa Shrine. It belongs to the area's Shimotsuki Kagura tradition and is a nationally designated Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property. Beginning in the late afternoon, it carries on for a full day and night. As dusk falls, a portable shrine procession singing Ise ondo circles a great torch in the grounds; once the cauldrons for the boiling-water rite are purified, children open the dancing with Hana no Mai. Dances follow one another all night, and near dawn a red demon with a huge axe appears for the Taikiri-men, chopping at the torches held up by two shrine attendants. Sparks scatter across the dance hall, and that moment is the festival's climax.
Sources
- OfficialTenryu Village www.vill-tenryu.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.