murmurKasukabe Giant Kite Festival
Kasukabe City · Edo River riverbank downstream of Hoshubana Bridge, Nishi-Hoshubana
Dates and details can change. Always check the official website before you go.
Kasukabe City · 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 May
- How the date is set
- Every year, May 3 – May 5 Held on May 3 and May 5 each year (not on May 4)
- Venue
- Edo River riverbank downstream of Hoshubana Bridge, Nishi-Hoshubana
- City
- Kasukabe City, Saitama
About
Every May 3 and May 5, a giant kite climbs above the riverbed of the Edo River. Members of the Showa Giant Kite Preservation Society spend 3 months making it from washi paper and bamboo. After a ceremony praying for the healthy growth of children celebrating their first Boys' Festival, two local teams totaling well over a hundred people haul the kite into the sky as more than 100,000 spectators watch. The custom is said to go back to 1841, late in the Edo period, when a monk staying at a temple in Hoshubana spoke of kite flying as a way to divine the silk harvest. In Hoshubana, which prospered from river shipping, it later became a Boys' Festival celebration of baby boys' births, and the kites kept growing until they reached their current size in the mid-Meiji era.
Sources
- OfficialKasukabe City www.city.kasukabe.lg.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.