Events & Gatherings

Festival Chubu G

例年7月中旬〜9月上旬（約30夜）

Gujo Odori

Hachiman, Gujo, Gifu

Every summer evening from July 11 to September 5 — thirty-one nights in all — music rises from the streets of Gujo Hachi

Market Chubu J

Daily

Jinya-mae Morning Market

岐阜県高山市八軒町1-5

Every morning, farmers come down from the mountain villages and set up their stalls in front of a government house that

Community Chubu M

Daily

Miyagawa Morning Market

Miyagawa riverside (Kajibashi to Yayoibashi), Shimosan-no-machi, Takayama, Gifu

White canvas stalls line the east bank of the Miyagawa River for seven hundred meters, from Kajibashi bridge to Yayoibas

Market Chubu O

Daily

Omicho Market

50 Kami-Omichocho, Kanazawa, Ishikawa

Locals call it Omicho. The market opened in 1721, during the era of the Kaga domain, when a fire destroyed several mark

Gathering Chubu E

Year-round

Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale

Tokamachi, Niigata (Echigo-Tsumari region)

Echigo-Tsumari sits in the mountains along the border of Niigata and Nagano prefectures — a region of extraordinary snow

Festival Chubu O

Daily

Ojiya Bullfighting (Ushi no Tsukiai)

Ojiya Bullfighting Arena, Oguriyama, Ojiya, Niigata

There is no winner. Every bout ends in a draw. In the mountains of Echigo, a tradition said to be nearly a thousand year

Gathering Chubu N

Daily

Northern Alps Art Festival

Omachi and the surrounding hills and lakes, Nagano

In a town raised by snowmelt, you look at art. Omachi in Nagano sits right at the foot of the Northern Alps, peaks of th

Residency Chubu N

Daily

Nanmoku Mountain Village Study Program

Nanmoku, Kanra District, Gunma

From the most aged village in Japan. Nanmoku in Gunma is said to have one of the highest proportions of elderly resident

Residency Chubu H

Daily

Hida-Furukawa Artisan Town Stay

Furukawa, Hida, Gifu

In a town where carp swim, you face the wood. Hida-Furukawa in Gifu has rows of white-walled storehouses, and hundreds o

Festival Chubu H

毎年4月19・20日

Hida Furukawa Festival: The Drums Before Dawn

Keta Wakamiya Shrine, Furukawa, Hida City, Gifu

The drumming begins at three in the morning. This is the essential fact of the Furukawa Festival: it starts before dawn,

Market Chubu K

毎月第1日曜（早朝〜午前中）

Kasugai Mitake Onsen Morning Market: First Sunday of Every Month

Mitake Onsen grounds, Uchinai, Kasugai City, Aichi

Once a month, on the first Sunday, the grounds of Mitake Onsen in Kasugai become a morning market. Farmers from the surr

Gathering Chubu T

4月中旬〜6月下旬

Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route: The Snow Corridor

Murodo, Tateyama Alpine Route, Toyama

Each spring, Japan turns a snow-removal project into a pilgrimage. The Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route, threading the North

Gathering Chubu G

通年（12月〜3月は冬季ライトアップあり）

Gero Onsen Gassho Village

2369 Mori, Gero City, Gifu

Gero is one of Japan's three most celebrated hot spring towns, which means most visitors come for the baths and leave wi

Workshop Chubu E

通年（要予約）

Echizen Washi: Making Paper in a Valley That Has Made Paper for 1,500 Years

8-44 Shizaike, Echizen City, Fukui

The Echizen valley has been making paper for fifteen hundred years — a claim that sounds like marketing until you see th

Workshop Chubu M

通年（各体験施設による）

Mino Ware: Shaping the Dishes Japan Eats From

Hisashiri, Izumi, Toki City, Gifu

Sixty percent of Japan's ceramic tableware comes from the Mino region — the dishes in most Japanese restaurants, the cup

Workshop Chubu S

通年（各体験施設による）

Shigaraki Yaki: Firing a Kiln That Has Burned for Eight Centuries

Shigaraki-cho, Koka City, Shiga

Shigaraki is known throughout Japan for one thing: the ceramic raccoon dogs that stand outside restaurants and shops, ar

Workshop Chubu W

通年（各工房の復旧状況による）

Wajima Chinkin: Engraving Gold into Lacquer After the Earthquake

Wajima City, Ishikawa

The January 2024 Noto Peninsula earthquake damaged Wajima severely — buildings collapsed, fires spread through the histo

Workshop Chubu K

通年（各体験施設による）

Kiso Lacquerware: Painting with Tree Sap in a Postroad Town

Narai, Shiojiri City / Kisomura, Nagano

The Kiso Valley was a section of the Nakasendo — one of the two great highways between Edo and Kyoto — and its post town

Residency Chubu O

通年

Obuse: The Small Town That Chose Art and Kept Its Soul

Obuse Town, Kamitakai-gun, Nagano

Obuse is a town of ten thousand people in northern Nagano, and it receives more visitors than a town of that size would

Residency Chubu S

通年

Sado Island: Where Gold, Noh, and Terraced Rice Fields Meet

Sado City, Niigata

Sado Island sits in the Sea of Japan off the Niigata coast, large enough to have its own distinct geography — a northern

Residency Chubu I

通年（公演は主に春〜秋）

Iida: Where Every Village Has Its Own Puppet Theater

Iida City, Nagano

Iida City in southern Nagano is said to have more than two hundred puppet theater groups distributed across its villages

Festival Chubu O

毎年9月第3土・日

Oiwake Shukuba Matsuri: The Post Town That Still Knows Its Songs

Oiwake, Karuizawa Town, Kitasaku-gun, Nagano

Oiwake sits at the junction of the Nakasendo highway and the Hokkoku Kaido, one of the branching points in Edo Japan's r

Festival Chubu O

毎年4月第3日曜前後

Okazaki Ieyasu Festival: The Birthplace of the Edo Shogunate

Okazaki Park and surrounding area, Okazaki City, Aichi

Tokugawa Ieyasu was born in Okazaki Castle in 1543. From this starting point, he navigated the chaos of the Sengoku peri

Festival Chubu H

毎年5月3〜5日

Hamamatsu Kite Festival: One Hundred and Seventy Teams in the Sky

Nakatajima Sand Dunes and Hamamatsu Castle Park, Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka

The Hamamatsu kite festival began as a private celebration — families flying kites to announce the birth of a child, the

Festival Chubu N

毎年1月15日

Nozawa Onsen Dosojin Matsuri: The Fire Festival of Midwinter

Nozawa Onsen Village, Shimotakai-gun, Nagano

On the evening of January 15th, in the snow of the northern Nagano mountains, a large wooden structure built by the youn

Festival Chubu M

毎年10月第1土曜

Matsumoto Jidai Matsuri: Four Centuries of Castle Town History Walking

Around Matsumoto Castle, Matsumoto City, Nagano

Matsumoto Castle's keep is black — unusual in Japanese castle architecture, which more commonly tends toward white — and

Festival Chubu G

2026年8月上旬（例年8月第1土曜前後）

Gifu Nagaragawa Fireworks Festival

Nagara River, Gifu City, Gifu

Fire falls on the river of the cormorant fishermen. The Nagara is one of Japan's clearest rivers, famous for the ancient

Festival Chubu N

2026年8月上旬（例年8月上旬）

North Lake Biwa Grand Fireworks Festival

Nagahama Port, Nagahama, Shiga

Fire reflects in the largest lake in Japan. Lake Biwa is vast—an inland sea in all but name—and on its northern shore, f

Festival Chubu T

2026年7月中旬（例年7月）

Toyohashi Gion Festival Hand-Held Fireworks

Yoshida Shrine, Toyohashi, Aichi

Here a man holds the fireworks in his arms. The tezutsu is a hand-held firework—gunpowder packed into a length of bamboo

Festival Chubu S

2026年7月下旬（例年夏季）

Shirako Beach Fireworks Festival

Shirako Beach, Suzuka, Mie

Fire scatters over the Ise sea. Shirako, part of Suzuka in Mie, is a seaside town on Ise Bay—a place of craftsmen, famou

craft Chubu T

通年（要予約・工房により異なる）

Tsubame-Sanjo Metal Crafts Experience

Tsubame-Sanjo, Niigata

You step into a town that makes things. Tsubame-Sanjo, two neighboring cities in Niigata, is a metalworking center known

craft Chubu M

通年（要予約）

Mino Washi Papermaking Experience

Washi no Sato Kaikan, Mino City, Gifu

You make paper that has been made for thirteen hundred years. In Mino, a town of clear rivers in Gifu, the craft of wash

craft Chubu K

通年（要予約）

Kaga Yuzen Dyeing Experience

Nagamachi, Kanazawa, Ishikawa

You dye the colors of old Kaga. Kanazawa, seat of the wealthy Maeda lords who ruled the Kaga domain, nurtured its own st

craft Chubu S

通年（要予約・施設により異なる）

Seki Blade Sharpening Experience

Hamono Kaikan, Seki City, Gifu

You touch the blade in the city of swords. Seki has made cutting tools for seven hundred years—once the producer of lege

craft Chubu T

通年（要予約・工房により異なる）

Tokoname Yaki Pottery Experience

Tokoname Pottery Road, Tokoname, Aichi

You knead clay in a town of chimneys. Tokoname is one of the Six Ancient Kilns of Japan, a pottery town with a thousand

Gathering Chubu S

例年初夏〜秋にかけて、島内各地の能舞台で薪能が上演されます。日程は会場により異なります。

Sado Firelight Noh

The island has more than thirty Noh stages. Sado was a place of exile, and the exiles brought the arts of the capital w

Festival Chubu T

例年5月1日に開催。豪華絢爛な御車山（山車）の巡行。ユネスコ無形文化遺産。

Takaoka Mikurumayama Festival

Floats of lavish metalwork. At the Takaoka Mikurumayama Festival, on the first of May, seven floats process through a t

Festival Chubu N

例年4月中旬に開催。子ども歌舞伎を載せた曳山の巡行。ユネスコ無形文化遺産。日程は年により異なります。

Nagahama Hikiyama Festival

Children perform kabuki. At the Nagahama Hikiyama Festival in April, child kabuki is staged atop ornate floats—boys bet

Festival Chubu S

例年4月上旬に開催。甲冑姿の武者行列「甲州軍団出陣」。日程は年により異なります。

Shingen-ko Festival

The army of the Takeda returns. At the Shingen-ko Festival in April, the streets of Kofu fill with armored warriors rec

Festival Chubu T

例年2月中旬〜下旬の金・土・日曜（3日間）

Tokamachi Snow Festival: The Town That Invented Celebrating Snow

Central Tokamachi and sites across the city, Niigata

Tokamachi, in the mountains of Niigata, receives some of the heaviest snowfall of any city in the world—two meters stand

Gathering Chubu N

例年10月中旬〜翌5月末

Nabana no Sato: Half a Year of Light Outside Nagoya

Nabana no Sato, Nagashima, Kuwana, Mie

Nabana no Sato is a flower park on the edge of Kuwana, between Nagoya and the sea, and for more than half the year—mid-a

Festival Chubu A

毎年12月15日・16日

Akiha Fire Festival

841 Ryoke, Haruno-cho, Tenryu-ku, Hamamatsu, Shizuoka

On the fifteenth and sixteenth of December, at the summit of a mountain north of Hamamatsu, Japan thinks hardest about f

Festival Chubu O

3月中旬の土日

Omihachiman Sagicho Festival

Himure Hachimangu, Omihachiman, Shiga

In mid-March, on the weekend nearest the 14th and 15th, the canal town of Omihachiman on Lake Biwa's eastern shore burns

Festival Chubu F

毎年5月1日・2日

Fukuno Yotaka Festival

Central Fukuno, Nanto, Toyama

On the nights of May 1 and 2, the small market town of Fukuno in the Tonami plain of Toyama fills with towering lanterns

Festival Chubu T

12月上旬〜中旬

Toyama Shimotsuki Matsuri (Winter Kagura)

Shrines of the Toyama valley, Iida, Nagano

The blessing arrives as a splash of boiling water, flung at you by a masked god with his bare hand. In the Toyama valley

Gathering Chubu H

毎年12月1日〜2月頃

Himi Winter Yellowtail Fair

Himi fishing port and restaurants, Himi, Toyama

Himi, a fishing town on Toyama Bay, has something few food destinations possess: an official declaration of honesty. Eac

Festival Chubu H

11月上旬〜1月中旬

Hanamatsuri (Okumikawa Winter Kagura)

Hamlets of Toei, Okumikawa, Aichi

Deep in the mountains of eastern Aichi, the small town of Toei spends its winter awake. From early November to mid-Janua

Festival Chubu N

毎年11月23日

Nagano Ebisuko Fireworks Festival

Saigawa riverside, Nagano City, Nagano

Japan shoots its fireworks in summer — tens of millions of people, yukata, humidity, haze. Nagano waits until November 2

Festival Chubu A

毎年6月5日

Atsuta Festival

Atsuta Jingu, Nagoya, Aichi

The number to know is 365. At dusk on June 5, in the cedar-dark grounds of Atsuta Jingu — the 1,900-year-old Nagoya shri

Festival Chubu K

例年2月最終土日

Katsuyama Sagicho Festival

Central Katsuyama, Fukui

In the last days of February, deep in the snow country of Fukui, a castle town does something unexpected: it throws a pa

Festival Chubu Y

例年9月下旬の土日2日間

Yamanaka Onsen Koikoi Matsuri

Around Yamanakaza, Yamanaka Onsen, Kaga, Ishikawa

Koikoi means come, come. It is not addressed to the gods or to the town but to the guests: the people staying in the inn