murmurUrasa Bishamondo Naked Pushing Festival
Minamiuonuma City · Fukoji Temple (Urasa Bishamondo)
Dates and details can change. Always check the official website before you go.
Fukoji Temple, Urasa · Last checked: Oct 11, 2026
Dates
Dates confirmed with official sources
- 2026
- Mar 6–7, 2026 （Ended） Eve festival on March 6, main festival on March 7
- 2027
- Sat, Mar 6, 2027 Main festival day; check the official page for the eve festival
- Usual timing
- Usually early March
- How the date is set
- The 1st Saturday of March Held on the first Saturday of March since 2020, with an eve festival the day before
- Venue
- Fukoji Temple (Urasa Bishamondo)
- City
- Minamiuonuma City, Niigata
About
On the first Saturday of March, the Bishamondo hall of Fukoji Temple in Urasa hosts its naked pushing festival, one of Japan's three great unusual festivals. Bare-chested men cleanse themselves with cold water and then shove forward together chanting "sanyo, sanyo," and the hall seethes with heat. Huge candles weighing about 30 kg give it the name Great Candle Festival, and lucky rice cakes, sake cups and other charms are thrown out several times. The pushing is said to have started with worshippers jostling to be first before Bishamonten. Tradition says Sakanoue no Tamuramaro built a hall here about 1200 years ago and enshrined the deity to pray for good harvests, and the Edo-period book Hokuetsu Seppu describes the scene. The current date has applied since 2020.
Sources
- OfficialFukoji Temple, Urasa www.bisyamonnosato.com
- OfficialNiigata Prefecture Tourism Association (Niigata Kanko Navi) niigata-kankou.or.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.