murmurHita Gion Festival
Hita City · Kuma, Takeda and Mameda districts, Hita
Dates and details can change. Always check the official website before you go.
Hita City Tourism Association · Last checked: Oct 10, 2026
Dates
Dates confirmed with official sources
- 2026
- Jul 25–26, 2026 （Ended）
- 2027
- Dates have not been announced yet. Please check the official website.
- Usual timing
- Usually late July
- How the date is set
- Changes from year to year Held over a weekend in late July
- Venue
- Kuma, Takeda and Mameda districts, Hita
- City
- Hita City, Oita
About
Each summer Hita asks for protection from epidemics, floods and storms with this festival of grand floats. Richly decorated yamaboko move through the Kuma, Takeda and Mameda districts to Gion music led by bamboo flutes with drums and shamisen, and their back curtains glitter with tigers and dragons stitched in gold and silver thread. After dark the floats are hung with lanterns for the evening procession, the high point of the festival. The festival goes back around 300 years, and the float procession and the deity's journey already looked much as they do now by 1714. Recently, floats around ten metres tall like those of the Meiji era have made a comeback. The Hita Gion float festival is an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property of Japan and one of the UNESCO-listed 'Yama, Hoko, Yatai' float festivals.
Sources
- OfficialHita City Tourism Association oidehita.com
- OfficialTourism Oita 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.