Ouchi Kunchi Festival
Japanese name:相知くんち
📅 Fri, Oct 16, 2026 - Sun, Oct 18, 2026
About this event
The Kumano Shrine Autumn Grand Festival, known as "Ouchi Kunchi" and held in Ouchi-cho, Karatsu City, Saga Prefecture, is a traditional event recreating a feudal lord's procession from the Edo period. Led by yakko attendants wearing happi coats, the "Haguma Gyoretsu"—in which straw sandal-clad yakko throw and pass feather-adorned lances measuring 3.45m in length and weighing 20kg to one another with unique rhythmic shouts—is known as a rare traditional performing art nationwide. In addition, two handmade 10m-tall big Yamakasa floats, revived last year for the first time in 100 years by local residents, brightly adorn the festival. The eve festival (Yoiyama) takes place on the 16th, the divine procession (Goshinko) on the 17th, and the children's Haguma and Yamakasa float procession on the 18th.
Source website (Japanese) ↗Venue
Kumano Shrine (Ouchi-cho, Karatsu City)
1848 Ouchi, Ouchi-cho, Karatsu, Saga 849-3201
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