murmurKannawa Yuami Festival
Beppu City · Eifukuji Temple, Kannawa Mushiyu steam bath square and around (Kannawa, Beppu)
Dates and details can change. Always check the official website before you go.
Kannawa Onsen official site · Last checked: Oct 10, 2026
Dates
Dates confirmed with official sources
- 2026
- Sep 20–22, 2026 （Ended）
- 2027
- Dates have not been announced yet. Please check the official website.
- Usual timing
- Usually late September
- How the date is set
- Changes from year to year Usually three days around a September holiday weekend; dates are announced each year
- Venue
- Eifukuji Temple, Kannawa Mushiyu steam bath square and around (Kannawa, Beppu)
- City
- Beppu City, Oita
About
For three days each autumn, Kannawa, Beppu's steamy hot-spring quarter, celebrates its springs and the itinerant monk Ippen, a figure closely linked to the area. Children in costume walk ahead of a statue of Ippen through the streets, and Buddhist dance-chanting fills the air. The event people talk about is the Yuotoko Ichibangake: runners dash up Kannawa's sloping lanes, and whoever reaches Eifukuji Temple first becomes that year's Yuotoko. You can also browse a festival fair in a yukata, watch evening dance offerings, catch rice cakes tossed to the crowd and visit a morning market. For a limited time, an illustrated scroll of Ippen's life, a nationally designated Important Cultural Property, goes on view. The 2026 festival, its 67th edition, fell in the 750th year of the Kannawa Mushiyu steam bath.
Sources
- OfficialKannawa Onsen official site kannawaonsen.com
- OfficialTourism Oita (official Oita Prefecture tourism site) www.visit-oita.jp
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.