Japanese Festivals, Month by Month

Every town in Japan has its matsuri — a day (or a month) when shrine deities ride through the streets, lantern floats light up the night, and whole neighbourhoods dance. This calendar lists 793 festivals across Japan by the month they are held, from the Sapporo Snow Festival in February to Kyoto's Gion Matsuri in July, with locations and links to each festival's official website.

The Matsuri Calendar — Festivals by Month

Famous Festivals of Japan

Start with the celebrations Japan is known for around the world — giant lantern floats in Aomori, a month of processions in Kyoto, dancing in the streets of Tokushima.

Gion Matsuri 祇園祭
Kyoto — July

Aomori Nebuta Matsuri 青森ねぶた
Aomori — August

Kanda Matsuri 神田祭
Tokyo — May

Tenjin Matsuri 天神祭
Osaka — July

Hakata Dontaku 博多どんたく
Fukuoka — May

Hakata Gion Yamakasa Festival 博多祇園山笠
Hakata-ku, Fukuoka — July

Sapporo Snow Festival さっぽろ雪まつり
Chūō-ku, Hokkaido — February

Chichibu Night Festival 秩父夜祭
Chichibu, Saitama — December

Kishiwada Danjiri Matsuri 岸和田だんじり祭
Kishiwada, Osaka — September

Jidai Matsuri 時代祭
Kyoto — October

Aoi Matsuri 葵祭
Kyoto — May

Sanja Matsuri 三社祭
Tokyo — May

Takayama Festival 高山祭
Takayama, Gifu — April, October

Browse Festivals by Prefecture

Hokkaido

Tohoku

Kanto

Chubu

Kansai

Chugoku

Shikoku

Kyushu & Okinawa

About This Guide

Every festival here is documented in open data (Wikidata, CC0), and its month and prefecture were verified against Japanese sources before listing. Exact dates are deliberately not printed: most festivals set their schedule year by year, so each festival's official website — linked on its page — is the place to confirm this year's dates. Japan has thousands of neighbourhood festivals that open data has not caught up with yet; this guide grows as the data does.

Looking for more of Japan? See the GIZUMO Network page for our other English guides.