2026 Oarai Hassaku Festival

About this event

Held at the end of summer, the "Oarai Hassaku Festival" is a traditional festival praying for peace across the four seas and bountiful harvests. For the 2026 (Reiwa 8) edition, Shinto rituals will be held at Oarai Isosaki Shrine on Tuesday, August 25. In addition, shopping district events will be held on Sunday, August 23, featuring the Yoimatsuri (eve festival) where floats parade through the town, and the Honmatsuri (main festival) where the area from Magarimatsu Shopping Street to Onuki Shopping Street becomes a pedestrian zone, unfolding with food stalls, float parades, mikoshi portable shrine processions, and the Isobushi dance parade. This festival was revived in recent years with local residents' wish of "loving Oarai forever," attracting many people from both inside and outside the town. The Oarai Hassaku Festival has an ancient history; it is a ritual related to an ancient myth in which the deities Kashima and Katori headed north to urge deity Onamuchi-no-Mikoto, enshrined at Oarai Isosaki Shrine, to surrender the land, and in ancient times Shinto priests and others from Kashima Jingu Shrine would visit on horseback on the 1st day of the 8th lunar month to celebrate the festival. Today, it is beloved as an attractive festival unique to Oarai where visitors can feel firsthand the lively atmosphere of the end of summer.

Venue

Oarai Isosaki Shrine

6890 Isohamacho, Oarai, Higashiibaraki District, Ibaraki 311-1301