The Shirakawa-gō Year
The Doburoku Festival's fixed October dates, the reservation-only winter light-up, the fire-cannon drill and the season markers of a living gasshō village — with the rules that come with each.
Shirakawa-gō's year still runs on the calendar of a farming village of about 1,500 people — planting songs in May, harvest sake in October, fire drills before the snow, and four reserved winter evenings when the gasshō houses are lit. Several of these are working village events rather than shows, and the rules that come with them are real. Exact hours land on the organizers' pages closer to each date.
In 104 days
Doburoku Festival — Shirakawa Hachiman Shrine
14–15 October 2026 · South end of the Ogimachi gasshō village
The harvest festival's first leg, on the same dates every year: rites from 8:00, a procession through the village from 9:00, and from about 15:30 the shrine's own cloudy doburoku sake is poured for visitors, with lion dances offered at 19:00.