🏮 Numata Matsuri

沼田まつり

Numata, Gunma (Suga Shrine) · Every year on 3 August

Summer festivalMikoshiBon odoriFloats

323 days to go
Rooms around Numata, Gunma fill up while the festival is on.

Numata Matsuri is held every year in early August in the central shopping district of Numata City, Gunma Prefecture. It is a summer festival in which the whole city participates, formed by combining the Gion Festival of Suga Shrine, which dates back to the Edo period, and a commerce and industry festival. It has long been known affectionately as "Ogyon" and draws crowds of more than 200,000 people. The festival's origins go back to the Edo period, when it began as the Gion Festival of Suga Shrine. Later it merged with the Numata Matsuri commerce and industry festival and developed into its present form. The main attractions are the mikoshi (portable shrine) processions from Suga Shrine and Haruna Shrine, the parade of "mando" floats decorated with dolls and accompanied by festival music, and the joint performance of town mikoshi and children's mikoshi from various districts of the city. In particular, the "Tengu Mikoshi," in which a large tengu mask is made into a mikoshi and carried by about 300 women alone, is full of power, and the "Sennin Odori," in which anyone can freely participate, is also popular.