Next edition — Apr 1–3, Apr 8–10, May 3–5, May 12–14, 2028 (CONFIRMED)
Hotel check-in nights: Apr 1–3, Apr 8–10, 2028
Crowd size — 174,000 people over 12 days · 2022 (April logs moved by truck)
Onbashira is Suwa Taisha's renewal festival in Nagano's Suwa basin, held only in Tiger and Monkey years. In April 2028 parishioners drag 16 giant firs off the mountains and ride them down slopes; in May they haul them through town and raise them at the four shrines. It suits spectators ready for long days outdoors. Stay on the JR Chuo Line between Okaya and Chino, or in Matsumoto.
How the date is set — Four three-day periods in Tiger and Monkey years: Yamadashi for the Kamisha and Shimosha shrines in early April, then Satobiki in May. Suwa City lists 1–3 and 8–10 April, and 3–5 and 12–14 May 2028.
How often it runs — Every six years, which local custom counts as every seventh year; after 2028 the next is 2034. In 2022, because of COVID-19, the organisers moved the April logs by trailer and truck instead of hauling them by hand.
Goes first — Expect 3 and 4 May 2028 to go first: the Kamisha Satobiki falls on Golden Week, Japan's early-May run of national holidays. Next come Saturday 1 April, the night before the Kamisha's Kiotoshi days, and Saturday 8 April, the opening day of the Shimosha's Yamadashi.
Act by — Now: the 2028 dates are fixed. Hold a cancellable room as soon as your chosen inn takes bookings for your period, then keep looking for cancellations nearer the date.
Suwa City has published all four 2028 periods; the Kamisha Satobiki coincides with the 3–5 May national holidays.
Suwa City — “Onbashira Festival: 2028 schedule” — https://www.city.suwa.lg.jp/site/enjoy/47140.html (read 2026-11-03)
A sold-out listing may reopen after a cancellation or an additional room release. 空きウォッチ Aki checks Rakuten Travel for new openings, so you can act when one appears.
Watch the rooms — free, no account
Suwa Taisha is four shrines, two on each side of Lake Suwa, and each keeps four pillars at its corners. Every Tiger and Monkey year they are replaced: sixteen firs in all, the largest nearly 17 metres long and about 13 tonnes.
No wheels or rollers are used. The Kamisha's eight come from a shrine forest at the foot of the Yatsugatake range, some 25 km away; the Shimosha's eight from the Higashimata forest below Kirigamine, about 20 km. A single pillar needs one to two thousand people on the ropes, drawn from 200,000 parishioners around the basin.
Yamadashi drags the logs out of the forest. Kamisha parishioners set off from a rope ground at 1,300 metres while snow still lies on Yatsugatake, with young men astride the horn-like poles, the medodeko, that jut from the front and back of each Kamisha log. Their Kiotoshi slope is 27 degrees.
At Shimosha the slope reaches 35 degrees and runs for about 100 metres. When the axe cuts the holding rope, the log drops in a roar of dust with riders still aboard. The Kamisha logs then cross the Miyagawa, in water below 10°C, and every pillar rests until May.
Satobiki brings the logs into town about a month later. Processions of mounted warriors more than 100 strong, flower-hat dancers and teams carrying chests on poles perform along the route as parishioners haul each pillar to its shrine.
At the shrine the tip is cut to a three-sided point. Then, with wires, ropes and a hand-turned winch, the pillar is pulled upright with parishioners still riding it. A 1.5-metre gohei is fixed to the top, and the fir from the mountain becomes a god.
Spectators only: the Onbashira is the parishioners' festival, and the general public cannot haul or ride the pillars.
Suwa Region Tourism Federation, Onbashira Tourism Information Centre — “Onbashira FAQ” — https://onbashira.jp/faq/ (read 2026-11-03)
Watching for free — Spectators watch from outside the roped route and follow the marshals; in a normal year crowds line the roads as the pillars pass. Do not plan on 2022: under COVID-19 measures the April logs went by truck, the paid Kiotoshi seats were cancelled, and the Shimosuwa town committee asked the public not to come and watch. Viewing areas, seats and traffic controls for 2028 have not been announced.
How hard it actually is — Kami-Suwa and Shimo-Suwa have the lakeside onsen inns, but the festival moves between four shrines on both sides of Lake Suwa and the mountain routes above them. Stations from Okaya to Chino are minutes apart on the JR Chuo Line, and Matsumoto widens the search. 空きウォッチ Aki checks well-rated inns and hotels listed on Rakuten Travel around Lake Suwa (Kami-Suwa, Shimo-Suwa and Okaya) for the twelve festival nights; Chino and Matsumoto are not included. Train times below are from JR East's current Saturday and holiday timetable; check the 2028 timetable nearer the date.
What a night costs — No 2028 festival rates have been published; compare each inn's full total and cancellation terms. Nagano Prefecture's lodging tax adds ¥200 per person per night on stays of ¥6,000 or more (room only, before consumption tax) until 31 May 2029; Matsumoto collects its own version.
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