murmurKumano Hongu Taisha Grand Festival
Tanabe City · Kumano Hongu Taisha, Oyunohara (former shrine site) and Yunomine Onsen
Dates and details can change. Always check the official website before you go.
Kumano Hongu Taisha · 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 mid April
- How the date is set
- Every year, April 13 – April 15 Apr 13 Yunobori and Miyawatari rites; Apr 14 Funatama festival; Apr 15 main rite and procession
- Venue
- Kumano Hongu Taisha, Oyunohara (former shrine site) and Yunomine Onsen
- City
- Tanabe City, Wakayama
About
Kumano Hongu Taisha's biggest and most important festival of the year runs from April 13 to 15. On the final day, after an early-morning rite in the main sanctuary, a procession escorts a portable shrine decked with artificial chrysanthemums to Oyunohara, the shrine's original site, where Yamato-mai and shrine maiden dances, a children's rice-planting rite, a sacred fire and a mochi-throwing take place. The opening day brings the Yunobori rite, a Wakayama Prefecture Intangible Folk Cultural Property. Young boys who act as vessels for the deity ride on their fathers' shoulders to Yunomine Onsen and are purified in its hot water; apart from the rituals themselves, their feet must not touch the ground. After a drum dance at Yunomine Oji, the group returns to Oyunohara over the Dainichi-goe mountain trail, and an evening procession follows. The Funatama festival fills the day in between, April 14.
Sources
- OfficialKumano Hongu Taisha www.hongutaisha.jp
- OfficialKumano Hongu Tourist Association www.hongu.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.