Pick your season:

Winter
(December, January, February)

Spring
(March, April, May)

Summer
(June, July, August)

Autumn
(September, October, November)

Year-Round
(every month, or nearly so)

Winter (December, January, February)

photo by Nik van der Giesen

New Year’s Holidays

Temples and shrines are the hot spots for New Year’s events. Ring in the new year (literally!) at a temple around midnight and eat new year’s soba noodles. Welcome the spirit of the new year within the first 5 days at a shrine. While you’re there, don’t forget your paper fortune!

Japan’s new year holidays are as special as English Christmas or American Thanksgiving. This means that many restaurants and shops will be closed, but you can see unique cultural events and enjoy sightseeing without crowds.

Acrobats in the Snow: Dezome-Shiki

Samurai often entered civil servitude in times of peace, and fighting fires suited their sense of bravery and physical fitness. For more than 300 years, the firefighters of the Kaga region around Kanazawa have readily displayed theirs in grand shows. Climbing atop bamboo ladders, they suspend their bodies over the ground below, held aloft by only one or two points of contact.

For the New Year’s exhibition, these firefighters strip down to ceremonial loincloths and spray the freezing winter air with water for the finale!

This event usually occurs in the morning, the first Sunday after New Year’s holidays.

Kanazawa Castle and Kenroku-en Light-up: Winter Snows

One of several seasonal garden light-ups throughout the year, this one coincides with the peak of winter snowfall. Kenroku-en Garden is free to enter during light-up events.

Filling the Ice House: A 500-year-old Onsen Town Tradition

In Kanazawa’s sleepy onsen town of Yuwaku, nestled in the forests of the southeastern mountains, locals welcome a god of ice and snow during the last Sunday of January, packing a traditional thatched cottage full in the hopes of ice in summer.

Traditional Japanese Falconry Demonstration

Falconry enthusiasts keep an Edo tradition alive in front of Kanazawa Castle.

Spring (March, April, May)

photo by Nik van der Giesen

Sakura (Cherry Blossom) Season

This is typically the busiest time in Japan for world travels. Make reservations at least three months in advance! Also keep in mind that the sakura forecast can change at the dates approach. If you find yourself arriving early, enjoy the plum blossoms! Back in the Heian period, it was the plum, not the sakura, that was enjoyed during springtime hanami. If you find yourself arriving late, you’ll find yaezakura, a lush variety packed full of pink petals instead. Whether early, on time, or late for the yoshino cherry forecast, you’ll still get some lovely pictures to show.

Kanazawa Castle and Kenroku-en Light-up: Cherry Blossoms

One of several garden light-ups throughout the year, this one coincides with the peak of cherry blossom season. As such, the dates are selected at the last possible moment. Kenroku-en Garden is free to enter during light-up events.

Haru-la-la-la Spring Crafts Festival

More than 150 stalls of handmade crafts and home cooked treats—many of which are made in front of you—are gathered together in Kanazawa Central Park. Entertainment includes live music, petting zoos and geisha performances.

Golden Week

Golden Week is one of Japan’s longest and busiest holidays, so hotel and transportation costs will be higher than usual. If you want to avoid the crowds, plan to travel before or after these days. Check the calendar each year, but it generally starts the last week of April and ends in the first week of May.

Kanazawa Castle and Kenroku-en Light-up: Golden Week

One of several garden light-ups throughout the year, this one coincides with Golden Week. Kenroku-en Garden is free to enter during light-up events.

Otabi, Children’s Kabuki Festival

Komatsu City’s mid-May Otabi Festival is all about children’s kabuki. For more than two and a half centuries, children have trained to perform on hikiyama, beautifully detailed hand-crafted mobile stages.

photo by Benjamin Ryo Ogawa

Peaceful World Kite Festival

This beach-side festival in early May is known internationally known among kite enthusiasts, with visitors from all over the globe. A competition is held, and of course, kites are on sale at the event as well. What makes this festival poignant is that it’s held on the very location of a major international military incident and anti-war protest!

Owara Nagashi (Traditional Night Dance)

As dusk fades into night and the lanterns of the historic teahouse district of Higashi Chaya Gai are lit, gentle dancers emerge to grace the street. These faceless dancers, covered by their district straw hats, celebrate in the Toyama fashion. The slow and deliberate movements are those of Yatsuo’s Owara Kaze no Bon, the all-night early-autumn prayer for a rich harvest and protection from typhoons. The Kanazawa edition lasts two hours in early May.

Onna-gawa Matsuri, The Festival of Lady Asano

Of the two rivers that border central Kanazawa, the Asano-gawa, or Asano River, is referred to as the Onna-gawa, or female river, the gentler counterpart to the larger Sai-gawa. Each year in late spring, a small festival is held along the river bank beside Higashi Chaya Gai and crossing the Ume-bashi, or “Plum Bridge.” Residents don their favorite yukata and kimono to perform a dance unique to their hometown alongside the river lined with lanterns and live music.

Summer (June, July, August)

photo by Nik van der Giesen

Hyakumangoku Matsuri, Kanazawa’s 3-day Long Festival

Taiko drums, marching samurai warriors, music on Japanese flutes and shamisen, lion dances, noh plays, yosakoi dancing, tea ceremony, and over 10,000 people dancing in the streets at once! This festival typically falls on the first weekend of June.

Kanazawa Castle and Kenroku-en Light-up: Hyakumangoku Weekend

One of several seasonal garden light-ups throughout the year, this one coincides with the Hyakumangoku Festival. Kenroku-en Garden is free to enter during light-up events.

Yuwaku Onsen Ice House Opening

In this 500-year-old tradition, the snow preserved from the onsen town’s winter festival is brought out from the thatched ice house and shared with the public. The event marks the first day of summer in Kanazawa.

Kiriko Festivals

Throughout the Noto Peninsula, massive lantern floats have lit up the evening streets for hundreds of years.

Tatemachi Roof Top Film Festival

Film Festival at parking that built for 40 years, powered by Kanazawa Film Festival. It’s a chance to watch Bohemian Rhapsody and some premier movie on roof top.

Kanazawa Castle and Kenroku-en Light-up: Firefly Viewing

One of several seasonal garden light-ups throughout the year, this one coincides with Golden Week. Kenroku-en Garden is free to enter during light-up events.

Hokkoku Fireworks Festival

Over 10,000 fireworks paint the sky. Join Japanese hanabi-watchers along the riverside or in one of the nearby parks, open a beer or a bottle of sake and view the fireworks in all their glory. Applause is given to show appreciation of the traditional fireworks craftsmanship. We always feel amazement to see “fire flowers” bloom in the night sky.

Mizukake Mikoshi

Portable shrines are marched around the 21st Century Museum and the surrounding neighborhoods. At several shops, priests bless the business, and buckets of water are sprayed over the crowd. The event always includes music and alcohol, and is a cheerful and unique way to beat the heat.

Kanazawa Castle and Kenroku-en Light-up: Obon Season

One of several seasonal garden light-ups throughout the year, this one coincides with Japan’s summer holidays on August weekends. Kenrokuen Garden is free to enter during light-up events.

Yosakoi Soran Dance Festivals

Throughout the summer and into autumn, competitions and dance festivals centered around yosakoi crop up throughout Ishikawa Prefecture. This high energy dance incorporates old and new dance styles with brilliantly colored costumes and props.

In a typical year, there are 8 separate times and locations over several months. See our article (linked below) for details outside Kanazawa.

Mikuni Fireworks Festival

Nearly every year on August 11th, Sangoku Beach in Sakai, Fukui lights up with about 10,000 fireworks for a midsummer night display. Here, underwater fireworks have become a summer feature famous throughout the Hokuriku region.

Autumn (September, October, November)

photo by Nik van der Giesen

Noyaki Earthenware Baking Festival

photo by Nik van der Giesen
Noyaki, literally translated as “wild burning” or “wild baking,” has been the yearly Shinto ritual of the family-run Hokutoh Pottery House for almost half a century. Spend 24 hours tending a low-heat bonfire along Kanazawa’s beaches.

Kanazawa Castle and Kenroku-en Light-up: Moon Viewing Season

One of several seasonal garden light-ups throughout the year, this one coincides with Japan’s early autumn holiday of Tsukimi, or “Moon Viewing.” Kenroku-en Garden is free to enter during light-up events.

Owara Kaze no Bon Festival, Toyama

photo by Nik van der Giesen
As the sun sets, elegant dancers appear in the streets, faces hidden by straw bonnets. Crowds draw to watch them pass as ghosts by the festival lanterns. The featured musical piece, set to shamisen strings and taiko drums, is the local “Ecchu Owara Bushi,” one of the most sophisticated and difficult folk songs in Japan.

Kanazawa Odori: Every Geisha Dancing Together

Coinciding with Silver Week, a small collection of holidays in mid-September, the Kanazawa Odori is the only time of the year when geiko from all 3 of Kanazawa’s Geisha Districts can be seen together in one spot.

21st Century Kanazawa Kogei Festival

photo by Nik van der Giesen

You can experience the diversity and potential of various crafts. Futuristic Tea Ceremony, Spacial collaboration of craftsman and chefs, special exhibition of crafts in the city.

Doburoku Sake Festival

Shirakawa-go is one of the very few places in Japan allowed to home brew doburoku sake. So white as to be nearly opaque, doburoku sake has a sharp, astringent flavor and is so thick, it is as much eaten as drunk. The Doburoku Festival in mid October is not only a chance to try this potent drink, but to see dances, costumes and customs unique to Shirakawa-go Village.

Sake Marche

photo by Nik van der Giesen

Sake brewers gather from all over Ishikawa Prefecture to offer samples of their most popular and novel concoctions. Pay for a set of tickets and a glass at the front, then hand some tickets over to have your glass filled with the samples of your choice.

Kanazawa Marathon

Runners from around Japan and the world complete at this highly popular event. So popular is it that runners must submit their applications for a lottery system in early April if they have any hope to run. Their route runs throughout Kanazawa, including many sightseeing places. And crowds gather to cheer for them as taiko drums play on.

Kanazawa Castle and Kenroku-en Light-up: Autumn Color Change

One of several seasonal garden light-ups throughout the year, this one coincides with the color change of autumn foliage and is the longest of the light-up events. Kenroku-en Garden is free to enter during light-up events.

Year-round Events

Kanazawa Castle & Gyokusen’inmaru Light-up

Every day, the Japanese castle and private royal garden are lit up and set to music against the night sky. At Gyokusen’inmaru Garden, the music alternates between the sounds of the shakuhachi flute and the koto, with different songs and lighting patterns unique to each season. Entry is free.

Geisha Events

Geisha can be spotted almost any time of the year, though special events may only occur a few times a month. Prices and dates vary by event type, so we’ve written a whole article to cover it all!

And these aren’t the only events! Every season, somewhere, some festival or event, big or small, is happening in Japan.

If you are a guest of Kaname Inn and interested in a particular kind of event, don’t hesitate to ask. We’ll help you find one as best we’re able. Enjoy your travels!