murmurNiwadani no Ko-odori Dance (Sakurai Shrine)
Sakai City · Sakurai Shrine, Katakura, Minami Ward, Sakai
Dates and details can change. Always check the official website before you go.
Sakai Tourism & Convention Bureau · 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 October
- How the date is set
- Changes from year to year The Sunday closest to October 5 each year (Sakurai Shrine's autumn festival)
- Venue
- Sakurai Shrine, Katakura, Minami Ward, Sakai
- City
- Sakai City, Osaka
About
On the Sunday nearest October 5, the autumn festival of Sakurai Shrine in Sakai's Minami Ward features the Ko-odori, an intangible folk cultural property designated by Osaka Prefecture and selected for documentation by the national government. Seventeen dancers in the guise of demons and tengu perform a dance with a touch of humor, and the bamboo baskets of paper flowers on the demons' backs and the dance songs show the influence of Muromachi-period furyu dances. The performance begins at the former site of Kuni Shrine, after which the troupe sings its way along the paths between the rice fields to Sakurai Shrine. The dance was once performed by young men at the festival of Kuni Shrine, guardian of Hachigamine, and is thought to have begun as a rain-making dance of a kind once common in Izumi. It moved here after Kuni Shrine was merged into Sakurai Shrine in 1910. Sakurai Shrine's worship hall is the only National Treasure in Sakai.
Sources
- OfficialSakai Tourism & Convention Bureau www.sakai-tcb.or.jp
- OfficialSakai City www.city.sakai.lg.jp
- OfficialSakai Tourism & Convention Bureau www.sakai-tcb.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.