murmurKomaruyama Grand Festival (Daiennichi)
Otawara City · Komaruyama Horinji Temple
Dates and details can change. Always check the official website before you go.
Tochigi Prefectural Tourism and Local Products Association (Tochigi Tabi Net) · Last checked: Oct 10, 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 mid December
- How the date is set
- The 2nd Sunday of December Listed by Tochigi Tabi Net as the second Sunday of December each year; an older Otawara City page (2010) gives November, with the main day on November 3
- Venue
- Komaruyama Horinji Temple
- City
- Otawara City, Tochigi
About
Komaruyama Horinji in the Sarado district of Otawara holds a grand festival with roughly 400 years of history. Known simply as Komaruyama, the old Tendai temple was founded in 860 by the monk Ennin and is made up of an outer hall, a middle hall, an inner hall and the Dainichi-do, which serves as the main hall. The mikoshi kept in the middle hall contains a hidden Buddhist image that can be seen only on festival days. A portable shrine setting out from a Buddhist temple, a survival of the old fusion of Shinto and Buddhism, is rare in Japan and the main reason to come. Two residents dressed as Sarutahiko, wearing tengu masks and tall wooden clogs, lead the procession on a round trip of about 2 kilometers to Hokigawa Bridge, praying for everyone's health. In the grounds sits a giant tengu mask weighing 1 ton, said to be the largest assembled-wood mask in Japan.
Sources
- OfficialTochigi Prefectural Tourism and Local Products Association (Tochigi Tabi Net) www.tochigiji.or.jp
Last checked: Oct 10, 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.