murmurMando-sai Lantern Festival at Taga Taisha
Taga Town · Taga Taisha Shrine, Taga
Dates and details can change. Always check the official website before you go.
Taga Taisha Shrine · Last checked: Oct 11, 2026
Dates
Dates confirmed with official sources
- 2026
- Aug 3–5, 2026 （Ended） Lanterns lit 19:00-21:30
- 2027
- Dates have not been announced yet. Please check the official website.
- Usual timing
- Usually early August
- How the date is set
- Every year, August 3 – August 5 Held every year from August 3 to 5
- Venue
- Taga Taisha Shrine, Taga
- City
- Taga Town, Shiga
About
From August 3 to 5, around 10,000 lanterns offered by worshippers across Japan light up Taga Taisha. They glow from 19:00 to 21:30, and beneath them there are performances such as the Taga Ondo dance and Omi sarugaku. At dusk on August 3, a sacred fire is struck in the traditional way on Mt. Sugisaka, where the deities are said to have come down, and brought by way of Totonomiya Shrine at the foot of the mountain to the main shrine to light the lanterns. The goddess enshrined here, Izanami, became the great deity of the land of the dead, and the festival thanks her for protecting ancestral spirits. It is one of the familiar summer sights of the Lake Biwa region. After 15:00 during the festival, the shrine parking lot is closed to cars and the approach street has traffic restrictions, so walk from Taga-Taisha-mae Station on the Ohmi Railway or park at the lot by the town office.
Sources
- OfficialTaga Taisha Shrine www.tagataisya.or.jp
- OfficialTaga Taisha Shrine www.tagataisya.or.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
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.