murmurRokoku-sai Water Clock Festival at Omi Jingu Shrine
Otsu City · Omi Jingu Shrine, Jingu-cho, Otsu
Dates and details can change. Always check the official website before you go.
Omi Jingu Shrine · 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 June
- How the date is set
- Every year on June 10 June 10 every year (Time Day in Japan)
- Venue
- Omi Jingu Shrine, Jingu-cho, Otsu
- City
- Otsu City, Shiga
About
On June 10, Time Day in Japan, Omi Jingu in Otsu holds Rokoku-sai, a festival devoted to timekeeping. Members of the watch and clock industry, in classical court dress and accompanied by women in court robes, offer new timepieces from their companies to the deity, thanking the ancestral god of time and praying for their trade. Court dances by women are also presented. The shrine's clock museum is free to enter that day, and if it is not raining an ancient fire clock is demonstrated. The festival looks back to the Nihon Shoki, which records Emperor Tenji using a rokoku (water clock) at the Omi-Otsu palace and sounding bells and drums to mark the hours, the beginning of time signals in Japan. Omi-jingu-mae Station on the Keihan line is about 10 minutes away on foot.
Sources
- OfficialOmi Jingu Shrine oumijingu.org
- OfficialBiwako Visitors Bureau (Shiga tourism) 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.
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.