Yokai Night Parade 百鬼夜行

Yokai Festivals, Month by Month

Three festivals held every year, in February, July and on New Year's Eve

3 places

Only a few festivals put a yokai at the centre and are held every year. These three are, in calendar order: the namahage coming down a snowy mountain with torches in February, the ushi-oni parading through Uwajima in July, and the foxes walking to their shrine in Tokyo as the year turns. Several better-known yokai parades have been suspended in recent years, and they are not listed here until they return.

  1. Namahage Sedo Festival なまはげ柴灯まつり

    Festival Oga, Akita · Second Friday to Sunday of February, after dark

    On a February night the namahage come down the snowy mountain with torches to the fire at Shinzan Shrine.

    Yokai you will meet: Namahage

  2. Uwajima Ushi-oni Festival うわじま牛鬼まつり

    Festival Uwajima, Ehime · 22 to 24 July every year

    Three days in July when twenty-odd ushi-oni from the districts of Uwajima parade through the streets and the portable shrine runs into the river.

    Yokai you will meet: Ushi-oni

  3. Ōji Fox Parade 王子 狐の行列

    Festival Kita (Ōji), Tokyo · New Year's Eve, from late evening into the first hour of the new year

    On New Year's Eve a procession in fox masks walks from the shrine of the changing tree to Ōji Inari, as the foxes did in Hiroshige's print.

    Yokai you will meet: Kitsune

Hours, admission and closing days change, and this site does not list them. The link goes to the place's own page, with the date we last checked it.