murmurTanabe Matsuri (Tokei Shrine Grand Festival)
Tanabe City · Tokei Shrine and central Tanabe
Dates and details can change. Always check the official website before you go.
Tanabe Tourism Association · Last checked: Oct 11, 2026
Dates
Dates confirmed with official sources
- 2026
- Jul 24–25, 2026 （Ended）
- 2027
- Dates have not been announced yet. Please check the official website.
- Usual timing
- Usually late July
- How the date is set
- Every year, July 24 – July 25 July 24 is the eve festival and July 25 the main festival
- Venue
- Tokei Shrine and central Tanabe
- City
- Tanabe City, Wakayama
About
On July 24 and 25, Tokei Shrine's grand festival, the Tanabe Matsuri, brings eight canopied floats called okasa out of the old merchant quarters of the former castle town. As they make their rounds, the floats call Kyoto's Gion Matsuri to mind, and the whole town gets swept up in it. Said to be the largest festival in southern Kii, it is one of the three great festivals of Kishu. July 24, the eve, starts with a morning portable shrine procession, a shrine maiden dance offered at Egawa fishing port and rites at the otabisho, and that night the floats line up at the old Aizu Bridge. July 25 opens with a dawn ceremony at 4:30, followed by the "seven and a half messengers" rite at the old Aizu Bridge, a seawater purification, the floats' evening entry to the shrine with rites before the deity, and a mounted archery ceremony. Procession times can shift a little.
Sources
- OfficialTanabe Tourism Association www.tanabe-kanko.jp
- OfficialTanabe Tourism Association www.tanabe-kanko.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.