murmurMamada no Jagamaita (Serpent Festival of Mamada)
Oyama City · Mamada Hachimangu Shrine and the surrounding Mamada neighbourhoods
Dates and details can change. Always check the official website before you go.
Mamada Hachimangu Shrine · Last checked: Oct 10, 2026
Dates
Dates confirmed with official sources
- 2026
- Tue, May 5, 2026 （Ended） Serpents gather at 10:30, purification rite at 11:00, procession and water-drinking rite from noon
- 2027
- Wed, May 5, 2027
- Usual timing
- Usually early May
- How the date is set
- Every year on May 5 Held rain or shine
- Venue
- Mamada Hachimangu Shrine and the surrounding Mamada neighbourhoods
- City
- Oyama City, Tochigi
About
Every May 5, the Mamada district of Oyama holds a serpent festival rooted in dragon-god worship and designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property of Japan. Coming before rice planting, it prays for timely rain, plentiful crops and freedom from disease. Children are at the center of it all. Each of 7 neighborhoods builds a dragon-headed serpent more than 15 meters long, with straw wound around a bamboo core and fern fronds as scales. In the morning the 7 serpents assemble at Mamada Hachimangu for the ja-yose gathering and are purified, then in the water-drinking rite their heads are plunged into the shrine's Benten Pond, sending up spray and cheers. Next they wind through town to shouts of "Jagamaita!", and toward evening the ja-momi ends the day as the giant serpents writhe and twist in clouds of dust. The festival once followed the lunar calendar but moved to Children's Day because its bearers are mostly children.
Sources
- OfficialMamada Hachimangu Shrine www.mamada-hachiman.jp
- 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.