murmurAtago Shrine Fire Festival
Uozu City · Around Uozu Shrine
Dates and details can change. Always check the official website before you go.
Uozu City Official Tourism Site · 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 late January
- How the date is set
- Every year on January 26
- Venue
- Around Uozu Shrine
- City
- Uozu City, Toyama
About
In this traditional fire festival, the whole town of Uozu prays to the god of fire for peace in the community and in every home. It goes back to the middle of the Edo period, when Uozu suffered fire after fire; to keep people mindful of fire safety, townsfolk dedicated great paper wands modeled on firefighters' standards to Atago Shrine, where a fire-protecting deity is enshrined. Each wand, an ogohei, is a green bamboo pole 5 to 6 meters tall, with sakaki branches at the top, tengu and okame masks, and long strips of gold, silver and white paper hanging down; the tengu drives away misfortune and the okame beckons good fortune. In the days before the festival, each neighborhood makes its wand and stands it up in the streets. On the day, Uozu Shrine, Hachimangu and Suwa Shrine split up to visit and bless the neighborhoods, then burn the wands in their grounds. Uozu has no sagicho bonfire, so this is also when people bring New Year decorations and calligraphy to burn.
Sources
- OfficialUozu City Official Tourism Site uozu-kanko.jp
- OfficialToyama Tourism Organization (Toyama Tourism Navi) www.info-toyama.com
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.