Omi no Hoka Festival
(held at a reduced scale)
Date: Aug 15,2025(Fri)
Taiko drums thunder during the Obon holiday
The Omi no Hoka Festival is an age-old performative art festival taking place in the mountain-surrounded Omi area of Shinshiro City. It is held every August 14 and 15 as an event for the Obon holiday—a Buddhist holiday welcoming the souls of relatives back to our world. The Omi no Hoka Festival is designated a prefectural intangible folk cultural property.
Normally, the festivities make their way around the households in the community as a Buddhist memorial service during the start of the Obon holiday, but due to the low number of members and other factors, the 2025 event will be held on a smaller scale than previous years.
Three dancers sport huge three-meter-tall fans on their backs while holding on to taiko drums attached to their stomachs as they dance to traditional folk songs passed down from generation to generation. The custom took root here from a sort of street performance art, which originally came from the songs and Buddhist chants of wandering monks at the end of the Heian period. The Omi no Hoka dance is performed around the community from the evening during the start of Obon in memorial of ancestors who have passed. Mournful melodies kept alive since the Kamakura period are performed with small gongs and flutes, echoing through the moonlit streets.
EVENT OVERVIEW
| Holding time | • 1st performance: 6:00 pm at Senshoji Temple • 2nd performance: 7:30 pm at Omi Community Center • 3rd performance: 8:15 pm at Senshoji Temple |
|---|---|
| Place | Senshoji Temple and Omi Community Center |
| Location | 〒441-1315 11 Teranomae, Omi, Shinshiro-shi, Aichi (Senshoji Temple) |
| Phone number | 0536-22-0673 (Shitaragahara Historical Museum) |
Note: This page may not be current due to update time differences between site databases.
Should accuracy be critical, please verify this information using a direct source, whenever possible.
ACCESS
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- Access by public transport
- 6-min. walk north from Omi Station on the JR Iida Line (board from Toyohashi Station, in turn reachable by the JR Tokaido Main Line or Meitetsu Nagoya Line from Nagoya Station).
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- Access by car
- Approx. 10 min. (2.3 km) north from Shinshiro Interchange on the Shin-Tomei Expressway.
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