Kanamara Matsuri 2027: Dates, Where to Celebrate and Travel Tips

The Kanamara Matsuri procession is expected on Sunday 4 April 2027 at Kanayama Shrine in Kawasaki, because the shrine holds its main festival on the first Sunday of April each year ^{5 1}. The date follows the Gregorian calendar, not a lunar one, so it moves only as the first Sunday shifts between 1 and 7 April. Wikipedia's festival calendar lists 4 April for 2027 and 2 April for 2028 ⁵. Kanayama Shrine had not published a 2027 programme by early November 2026, so treat the date as expected.

For anyone searching for Kanamara Matsuri 2026, the main day was Sunday 5 April 2026, when crowds of tourists, couples and families filled the streets of Kawasaki ⁶. Time Out Tokyo listed the 2026 programme as follows ^{2 3}:

• Saturday 4 April, 14:00 to 15:30: daikon-carving rite ²
• Saturday 4 April, 17:00 to 18:00: yoimiya eve rite ²
• Sunday 5 April, 10:00 to 10:15: sacred fire rite (ohitori-sai) ²
• Sunday 5 April, 10:15 to 10:45: main festival rite ²
• Sunday 5 April, 11:30 to 14:00: mikoshi procession ²
• Saturday 11 and Sunday 12 April, 10:00 to 17:00: Kanamara market and mikoshi display ^{2 3}

The split weekend is the detail most first-timers miss. In 2025, too, the procession ran on Sunday 6 April from 11:30, and the market with the mikoshi display followed on 12 and 13 April ⁴. If that pattern holds, the Saturday eve rites in 2027 would fall on 3 April and the market weekend a week after the procession, but neither has been announced.

Tip: Plan around the Sunday if you want to see the mikoshi carried, and around the following weekend if you mainly want the market stalls and a calmer look at the shrines on display.

The festival has been called off before: the 2011 edition was cancelled after the Great East Japan Earthquake ¹⁶. Check the shrine's X account, @kanayamajinja, in the last week of March for the official timetable ².

Nothing at Kanamara Matsuri needs a ticket: watching the rites and the mikoshi procession at Kanayama Shrine in Kawasaki is free, and Time Out Tokyo lists admission as free for every part of the 2026 programme ^{2 3}. There are no reserved seats or paid viewing areas; you stand where you can find space in the Wakamiya Hachimangu precinct or along the streets the mikoshi pass.

What you pay for is what you take home. The best-known item is kodakara-ame, the candy named for the blessing of children, sold on the grounds in the festival's famous shapes ³. A 2026 visitor guide put a lollipop at about 500 yen and souvenirs and candy at about 500 to 2,000 yen ¹⁸. Sales of candy and goods support HIV research, which is why buying something here is part of the point rather than just a souvenir ^{16 5}.

Expect to spend on:

• Kodakara-ame candy, about 500 yen per lollipop in 2026 ¹⁸

• Ema plaques and lucky charms from the shrine office ¹⁶

• Carvings, keychains and other goods sold on the grounds ¹⁶

• Food from the stalls, including takoyaki ¹⁶

Bring cash. Many food and souvenir vendors at the festival do not take cards, according to the same 2026 guide, so arrive with yen in small notes and coins ¹⁸. Your Suica or Pasmo card covers the train, not the candy ¹⁸.

The candy sells out, so the queue matters more than the price. Zooming Japan warns that the boiled-candy lollipops go fast and advises coming early if you want one ¹⁶. A 2012 report described a queue of about half an hour for candy ¹⁷.

Note: The Kanamara market weekend after the procession was the place for unhurried shopping in 2025 and 2026, with the mikoshi on display for photos ^{4 2}.

Kanayama Shrine stands inside Wakamiya Hachimangu at 2-13-16 Daishi Ekimae, Kawasaki-ku, a 2-minute walk from Kawasaki-Daishi Station on the Keikyu Daishi Line ¹. The shrine's coordinates are 35.5347 N, 139.7247 E ¹⁹. The Daishi Line is a short branch that starts at Keikyu Kawasaki Station, next to JR Kawasaki Station; the ride takes about 5 minutes and costs 150 yen, with frequent trains ¹⁰.

From Haneda Airport, ride the Keikyu Line towards Yokohama to Keikyu Kawasaki, then change to the Daishi Line ^{8 12}. The Haneda to Keikyu Kawasaki leg runs via Keikyu Kamata and takes about 16 minutes for 327 yen by IC card ¹³. A taxi from Haneda to the Keikyu Kawasaki area costs from about 4,700 yen and takes about 25 minutes ¹³. Japan Trails puts the whole Haneda to Kawasaki Daishi trip at about half an hour ¹².

From central Tokyo and Yokohama, japan-guide.com lists these trains to Kawasaki ¹¹:

• Tokyo Station by JR Tokaido Line: about 20 minutes, 350 yen ¹¹
• Shinagawa by JR Tokaido Line: about 10 minutes, 260 yen ¹¹
• Shinagawa by Keikyu: 240 yen, about as fast ¹¹
• Yokohama by JR Tokaido Line: about 10 minutes, 260 yen ¹¹

From Shinjuku, the Japan National Tourism Organization estimates 45 to 50 minutes via the JR Yamanote Line and Keikyu, and 15 to 20 minutes from Yokohama Station ¹.

Tip: If you arrive at JR Kawasaki, walk the short distance to Keikyu Kawasaki for the Daishi Line; the JR station has no direct train to Kawasaki-Daishi ¹⁰.

Getting back is the harder part. After the procession, everyone heads for the same small station at once. Walking the 8 minutes to Kawasaki Daishi Heikenji, eating near the temple and returning later spreads you away from the rush ⁸. Families with children aged 6 or over should carry a child IC card, because Keikyu charges the adult fare to children who tap a contactless credit card ¹².

The heart of Kanamara Matsuri is a Shinto rite: Kanayama Shrine honours Kanayama-hiko and Kanayama-hime, deities who protect the forge, which is why blacksmiths and metalworking companies worship here ¹. People also pray to them for easy childbirth, marital harmony and protection from sexually transmitted infection ⁵. The festival's roots go back to the Edo-period post town of Kawasaki-juku, where women who worked at the inns prayed for protection from disease and for their trade ⁴. In the 1980s, people began coming to pray against AIDS, and the festival grew beyond the neighbourhood ¹. The festival in its current form dates from 1969 ⁵.

The weekend unfolds in order:

• Saturday afternoon: daikon radishes are carved and offered before the deities in prayer for children and descendants ³

• Saturday evening: the yoimiya, a small eve rite ²

• Sunday morning: the sacred fire rite, then the main rite, before the gates open to the procession ²

• Sunday late morning: the three mikoshi are carried out ²

Each mikoshi has its own story. The Kanamara Okami Mikoshi, with a square base and roof and a wooden phallus inside, is the oldest ^{5 3}. The Kanamara Fune Mikoshi has a boat-shaped base and a black iron phallus, donated by Hitachi Zosen ⁵. The roofless Elizabeth Mikoshi, a large pink phallus, was donated by the cross-dressing club Elizabeth Kaikan in Asakusabashi ⁵. The Elizabeth mikoshi moved onto a wheeled trolley in 2016 and, from 2017, made a one-way road trip to Daishi Park, where it is covered in white cloth and pushed back to the shrine ⁵.

When the iron mikoshi return, they are carried into the main shrine, where a priest offers prayers and the crowd follows ¹⁷. Flag bearers walk with the procession, some carrying flags printed with Momotaro ¹⁶.

Tip: Watch the opening rites from the shrine precinct, then step out to the street before 11:30; once the mikoshi leave, the precinct is too packed to move freely ².

Arrive at Kanayama Shrine by about 10:00 on the Kanamara Matsuri Sunday: the rites start then, and the precinct is small enough that late arrivals end up watching from the back ². Japan's national tourism organisation calls it one of the most crowded spring festivals in Japan ¹. A 2012 visitor who arrived around 13:00 found the grounds so packed it was hard to move without bumping into people ¹⁷. A 2026 guide described the crowd as tens of thousands and said it peaks around midday ¹⁸.

How the day usually builds:

• Before 10:00: space to walk the precinct and see the mikoshi at rest
• 10:00 to 11:30: rites, with the crowd thickening behind the priests ²
• 11:30 to 14:00: procession and the heaviest crowd of the day ²
• After 14:00: thinning streets, but candy and goods may have sold out ¹⁶

Early April weather around Kawasaki is mild but changeable. The Japan Meteorological Agency's 1991 to 2020 normals for nearby Yokohama give April a mean temperature of 14.5 C, a mean daily high of 18.9 C, a mean daily low of 10.7 C and 143.1 mm of rain over the month ¹⁴. Mornings in the precinct can be cool while you wait, and a sunny noon in a dense crowd feels much warmer.

Tip: Dress in layers, carry a compact umbrella rather than a wide one that blocks the view, and use a station or convenience store toilet before you join the crowd, because festival toilet queues are long ¹⁸.

Older relatives and small children manage better on the market weekend, when the mikoshi are displayed and the grounds are calmer ^{4 2}. Families and children do come on the Sunday, and many locals take part ¹⁶. If someone feels unwell in the crush, call 119 for an ambulance or 110 for police; the Japan Visitor Hotline, 050-3816-2787, answers 24 hours a day in English, Chinese and Korean ¹⁵.

Stay around Kawasaki Station for Kanamara Matsuri: Keikyu Kawasaki, the start of the Daishi Line, stands next to JR Kawasaki Station, so you are one 5-minute train ride from Kawasaki-Daishi Station and the shrine ¹⁰. The east exit side is also where the airport bus leaves, from bus stop 18 for Haneda on Keikyu bus route 51 ¹³.

Good bases for the weekend:

• Kawasaki Station area: shortest trip to the shrine and to Haneda, about 16 minutes by train from Keikyu Kawasaki ¹³
• Yokohama: about 10 minutes from Kawasaki by JR Tokaido Line, with far more rooms ¹¹
• Shinagawa: about 10 minutes by JR, or a direct Keikyu ride to Keikyu Kawasaki ¹¹
• Central Tokyo: Tokyo Station is about 20 minutes from Kawasaki by JR ¹¹
• Keikyu Kamata or the airport area: where the Airport Line meets the Keikyu Main Line, handy for an early flight ¹³

Book as soon as you settle on the dates. The first Sunday of April falls in the busiest spring travel weeks of the Tokyo area, and the festival itself brings many overseas visitors who want rooms near the shrine ¹⁷. Kawasaki has fewer hotels than Yokohama or Tokyo, so the closest rooms tend to go first.

Tip: If you also want the market weekend, a base in Yokohama or Shinagawa keeps the second trip to Kawasaki-Daishi Station simple, since both are about 10 minutes from Kawasaki by train ¹¹.

The Kawasaki Daishi district itself is a temple town with shops and restaurants along the approach rather than a hotel district ¹⁰. Japan Trails estimates about 1.5 hours to visit Kawasaki Daishi Heikenji, or 2 hours with a goma fire ceremony ¹². That makes it easy to see the temple on the festival afternoon and still get back to a hotel in Kawasaki, Shinagawa or Yokohama by evening. The temple plans its 900th-anniversary grand festival for 1 to 10 May 2027, about four weeks after the expected procession date, which may also fill Kawasaki rooms that spring ⁹.

Mobile data matters at Kanamara Matsuri because the precinct and the streets around Kawasaki-Daishi Station fill at the same time, and the shrine sends its timing notices through its X account rather than loudspeakers you can hear from the back ^{2 18}. Groups split easily: one person queues for candy, another follows the mikoshi, a third waits at the station.

Things you will actually use your phone for:

• Checking @kanayamajinja for the day's timings, posted in Japanese ²
• Sharing a live location when friends are split between the precinct and the street ¹
• Translating ema and charm labels at the shrine office ¹⁶
• Looking up the next Keikyu Daishi Line train and checking your IC card balance ^{10 12}
• Finding the way to Kawasaki Daishi Heikenji, an 8-minute walk away ⁸

Do not plan the day around public Wi-Fi in a shrine precinct this crowded; keep maps and the shrine's posts on your own data. A Japan eSIM is one way to keep mobile data running through the procession.

Tip: Save the shrine address, 2-13-16 Daishi Ekimae, Kawasaki-ku, in your map app and agree on a meeting point at Kawasaki-Daishi Station before the mikoshi leave ¹.

Photography deserves a moment of thought before you raise your phone. The festival is a working Shinto rite, and the Japan National Tourism Organization notes that security staff deal with lewd behaviour and harassment ¹. After the 2015 festival, the shrine announced on X that it would stop putting up its giant commemorative photo monument for the following year, because some attendees did not cover up when asked to stop indecent exposure ⁷. Ask before close-up portraits of mikoshi bearers, and keep photos of children out of your posts ¹⁸.