murmurSakata no Oshakasan Nirvana Day (Ryohoji Temple)
Wakayama City · Ryohoji Temple, Sakata
Dates and details can change. Always check the official website before you go.
Wakayama Prefecture Tourism Federation · Last checked: Oct 11, 2026
Dates
Dates confirmed with official sources
- 2026
- Sun, Mar 15, 2026 （Ended）
- 2027
- Dates have not been announced yet. Please check the official website.
- Usual timing
- Usually mid March
- How the date is set
- Every year on March 15
- Venue
- Ryohoji Temple, Sakata
- City
- Wakayama City, Wakayama
About
Only once a year, on March 15, Ryohoji Temple in Wakayama City's Sakata district opens its three-dimensional Nirvana group to view. The occasion is the temple's Nirvana Day service, held a month after the date of the Buddha's passing and long known locally as Sakata no Oshakasan. Depicting the Nirvana scene with a gathering of statues instead of a painted mandala is unusual, and only two temples in Japan are said to own such a set. Special temple seals and seal books are available that day. Visitors are asked to come by public transport; it is about a 10-minute walk from Kamayama Station on the Wakayama Electric Railway Kishigawa Line.
Sources
- OfficialWakayama Prefecture Tourism Federation www.wakayama-kanko.or.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.