🏮 Munakata Taisha Shuki Taisai

宗像大社の秋季大祭

Munakata, Fukuoka (Munakata Grand Shrine) · Every year on 1 October

Traditional performing arts

17 days to go
Rooms around Munakata, Fukuoka fill up while the festival is on.

At Munakata Taisha in Munakata City, Fukuoka Prefecture, the Autumn Grand Festival is held every year from October 1 to 3. On the first day, the Miare Festival (a sea procession of the gods) is held, in which the sacred seals of Tagorihime no Kami are carried from Okitsumiya on Okinoshima to the mainland port of Minato, and those of Tazuhime no Kami from Nakatsumiya on Oshima. At the temporary shrine in Minato, Ichikishimahime no Kami of Hetsumiya comes out to welcome them, and once a year the three goddesses meet again. The Miare Festival is a traditional festival that has continued for over 700 years since the Kamakura period, praying for safety at sea and abundant catches. The highlight is the solemn sea parade in which hundreds of local fishing boats surround and accompany the two sacred boats carrying the sacred seals, and on that day many people gather at the fishing port of Minato. On October 3, the final day of the festival, the Takamiya Kannabi Festival is offered at the Takamiya festival site, reviving in 2005 a Shinto ritual that had been performed until the eighth year of the Oan era, after 630 years. A beautiful, otherworldly "Eternal Dance" is performed, bringing the Autumn Grand Festival to a close.

Getting there

From Hakata Station, take the train for about 30 minutes and get off at Togo Station, then take a Nishitetsu bus for about 15 minutes (get off at Munakata Taisha or Minato).