🏮 Minami Uonuma Shi Yuki Matsuri

南魚沼市雪祭り

Minamiuonuma, Niigata (Daijingu Shrine) · Every year on 25 February

Snow festival

164 days to go
Rooms around Minamiuonuma, Niigata fill up while the festival is on.

The Minamiuonuma City Snow Festival is a winter festival held every February in Minamiuonuma, Niigata Prefecture. It took over from the former Muikamachi Snow Festival and changed to its current name when Minamiuonuma City was established in 2005. It is now the largest winter festival in the Minamiuonuma area, drawing many visitors from within and outside the prefecture. Its origins go back to the former Muikamachi Snow Festival, which began making snow sculptures in the postwar period of confusion with hopes for recovery. Also, at the Daijingu in the former Muikamachi and Ise areas, a rite to call spring to the snow-deep region has been held on February 14 since ancient times. At the venue, events rich in local character unfold over two days. Highlights include snow stage shows unique to the birthplace of the Sengoku-period strategist Naoe Kanetsugu, and honyarado (kamakura snow huts).

Getting there

3 minutes on foot from Shiozawa Station on the JR Joetsu Line; 15 minutes by car from Shiozawa Ishiuchi I.C. on the Kanetsu Expressway; 15 minutes by car from Muikamachi I.C.