Maibara Hikiyama Festival at Yutani Shrine

About

At this festival of Yutani Shrine, Maibara's guardian shrine, local boys from grades 1 to 6 perform kabuki on the stages of the floats. On the eve, the lantern-lit floats are pushed up the steep road to the shrine to rhythmic shouts. On the morning of the main day, the young actors and young men in formal dress walk in procession to the shrine and perform plays for the deity, and more plays follow in each neighborhood during the after-festival. Three neighborhood groups, from the Kita, Naka and Minami districts, run the festival, with the young men's associations doing most of the work. It is thought to have started in the late Edo period, following the example of the Nagahama Hikiyama Festival, and a record from 1770 tells of three floats being built for children's plays. The festival is an intangible folk cultural property of Shiga Prefecture, and the shrine is about a 10-minute walk from the east exit of JR Maibara Station.

Sources

• OfficialMaibara City www.city.maibara.lg.jp
• OfficialBiwako Visitors Bureau (Shiga Official Tourism Site) www.biwako-visitors.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

• Sentoe Thousand Lights at Zensuiji Temple
• Shigaraki Pottery Festival
• Otsu Matsuri
• Zuiki Festival (Mikami Shrine)