Opening hours, fees and event dates change. Before you go, please confirm the latest details on each facility's or organizer's official information.
This column is a yearly hub for “events made by people” (festivals and events). “Nature's peak seasons,” such as flowers and autumn foliage, are gathered in a separate column, the Seasonal Calendar. For both, dates and peak times shift from year to year, and whether they're held can change too. Always check each organizer's official information for the latest before you go.
Early summer (late May–June) | Higashimurayama Iris Festival
The biggest highlight of the year. Held usually from late May to mid June, when about 100,000 irises of roughly 600 varieties peak at Kitayama Park (Iris Garden). Evening illuminations are sometimes held during the event (availability and dates vary by year). For details, see the complete Iris Festival guide.
Read the complete Kitayama Park Iris Festival guide →Summer (July) | Yasaka Shrine Grand Festival
Usually in July, one of the city's largest mikoshi (portable shrine) festivals. Over a round trip of about 10 km between Shofukuji — the former betto (administering) temple — and Yasaka Shrine, the mikoshi, accompanied by great drums and floats, processes through the parishioners' neighborhoods. A festival historically linked to the National Treasure, Shofukuji Jizodo Hall.
Read the Yasaka Shrine Grand Festival article →Autumn (October) | Higashimurayama Kumegawa Awa Odori
Usually in mid October, an Awa Odori dance staged around Kumegawa Station. A locally rooted festival that began in 1979, lapsed, and was revived in 2013. With a “niwaka-ren” (a pickup troupe formed on the spot that day), you can sometimes join in and dance in your street clothes.
Read the Kumegawa Awa Odori article →Autumn (November) | Citizens' Industry Fair & sake brewery open day
Early November brings the city's largest event, the “Citizens' Industry Fair,” bustling with displays and sales of farm and livestock products and goods from local businesses. Around the same November, there's also “TOSHIMAYA FESTA,” the open day of Toshimaya Sake Brewery in Kumegawa-cho. Autumn is the season when festivals of “food” and “sake” come one after another.
Read the Citizens' Industry Fair article →Read the TOSHIMAYA FESTA (brewery open day) article →Spring and autumn | Higashimurayama Greenery Festival
An awareness event themed “Greenery is a treasure of the Earth,” sharing the importance of greenery with residents. Co-hosted by the “Higashimurayama Citizens' Council to Protect Greenery” and the city, it is held twice a year, usually in spring and autumn. Activities include seedling giveaways and events for enjoying nature (content and dates vary by year).
The timings listed here are “typical-year guides.” The actual dates, venues, content and whether each is held change from year to year. Before you go, always check each organizer's official information (Higashimurayama City, the Chamber of Commerce, shrines, breweries, etc.). The “this year's information” in this column is as of the last-updated date at the bottom of the page.
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