Happy New Year, Kanazawa, Japan. (Kaga Firefighting event in the snow, Dezome Shiki)

New Year’s in Kanazawa: Stripping Firefighters, Holy Prayers

29.12.2024

Festivals & Events

Ring a temple bell, get your shrine fortune, and watch acrobatic Japanese firefighters strip in the snow! Here's what to expect for New Year's in Kanazawa.

a hundred taiko drums in front of Kanazawa Station's drum gate at the Hyakumangoku Festival Parade

Kanazawa’s 3-Day Festival: Hyakumangoku

19.05.2023

Festivals & Events

More than a mere historical reenactment, the Hyukumangoku Festival, with its three full days of samurai, dancing, and numerous cultural activities, celebrates Kanazawa culture and history like no other event!

Children shoveling snow into the Himuro Koya in Yuwaku

Two Japanese Ice House Festivals: Winter Warmup & Summer Snow

26.01.2023

Festivals & Events

courtesy the city of Kanazawa In southeast Kanazawa, on […]

100 Taiko Drums in front of Kanazawa Station's Drum Gate for the Hyakumangoku Festival

Events In and Around Kanazawa, a Masterlist

09.12.2022

Festivals & Events

Hoping to catch a festival or just want to know what to do in Kanazawa while you're here? Here's our ever-updating masterlist of events for you!

The parade for the Doburoku Festival in Shirakawago

Doburoku Festival: Sake Celebrations in Shirakawago!

18.10.2022

Festivals & Events

Japan has very strict provisions on sake brewing. If yo […]

Owara Kaze no Bon, Toyama, Japanese festival

Owara Kaze no Bon, Toyama’s Mysterious Dancing Festival

26.12.2019

Festivals & Events

Hundreds of women in uniform kimono dance through the night, ghost-like, faces hidden under folded straw hats, in a prayer to the wind to spare them this year during Toyama's Festival of the Dead.

The brooms that brush the burning rice hulls catch fire as they reveal the completed earthenware pottery pieces.

Noyaki: Wildfire Earthenware on Kanazawa’s Beach

30.08.2019

Festivals & Events

Once every summer, just as the temperatures have passed […]

Mikoshi Shrine passing in front of Kaname Inn Tatemachi in Kanazawa

Persimmons, Water & Walking Shrines: Kakinobatake Mizukake Festival

21.07.2019

Festivals & Events

A neighborhood festival to ward off the summer heat, the Mizukake Festival in Kanazawa's Kakinobatake district is a wet and wild water festival, incorporating taiko, sake, portable shrines and the area's namesake, the persimmon.

Sesami-zou, a miko mascot, herself symbolizes luck in love.

Seseragi Marriage Festival

18.05.2019

Festivals & Events

Looking for true love in Japan? Say a prayer at the shrine during Seseragi-dori's Marriage Festival, a quaint but supremely friendly street fair in late May

Yosakoi group shot, Komatsu, by Tamaya Greenlee

Yosakoi: Experiencing Japan’s High Energy Festival Dance

17.05.2019

Festivals & Events

Sarah Morris – "I can’t recommend going to see yosakoi enough, especially the Kanazawa festival. Eat some festival food, have a blast, AND JOIN IN THE FESTIVITIES! There’s a giant dance at the end that everyone can join in together."