We are now heading into Autumn, The sun may set on summer, but that doesn’t mean Osaka and its surrounding environs show any signs of slowing down.
There’s still a plethora of things to see, events to enjoy and fun to be had as the year moves into its final third.
So, today, for your consideration we run down the top ten activities to enjoy in the Osaka area this September.
Table of Contents
Kishiwada Danjiri Festival September 14-15
We begin today with one of Osaka Prefecture’s best known autumn festivals: The KIshiwada Danjiri Festival. The Kishiwada Festival is the largest Danjiri festival in Japan, and dates back some 300 years. Danjiri are the large floats carried by the men participating in the festival. These ornate and beautifully crafted floats are extremely heavy requiring more than a dozen volunteers to carry each one. At the festival’s peak, in 2019, 34 Danjiri were carried along the parade route by more than 300 participants. The event also attracted 500,000 spectators over its 2 day span. Not bad for a small suburban overspill city of Osaka.
Even if you can’t get there on the day of the festival, Kishiwada is worth a visit anytime. In addition to its stunning Kishiwada Castle, there is also a fascinating museum on the castle grounds. This museum details the history of the festival, the castle and indeed the wider area, going back more than 1000 years. Kishiwada is about 15 minutes by train from JR Tennoji Station.
Toyono Cosmos Festival Early Sept-Mid October
After all the bustle, noise and excitement of the Danjiri Festival, maybe you’re looking for a bit of peace and quiet. Well, the Toyono Cosmos Festival is here to meet your needs. Throughout September, and indeed into October, Toyono Cosmos Flower Park. Cosmos Flowers are a late-blooming, yet extremely diversely colored form of flower. As such they make the perfect backdrop for that last picnic before the long winter descends upon us. Toyono Cosmos Park has plenty of them to go around as well. Last time someone took a count, there were in excess of one-million cosmos flowers spread over the hectare or so of greenery to comprises the park.
Toyono is about a 20 minute drive from Osaka, admission to the park during the Cosmos Festival is 500 yen for adults and 300 yen for kids. Within the park there are also vendors selling freshly cut flowers, and local delicacies for an additional charge.
Kiyomizu Seiryu-e Dragon Festival: Sept 15th
We’ve already covered one of September’s oldest cultural festivals, with the Kishiwada Danjiri. Now, let’s head over to Kyoto for a look at one of the newest festivals in town. The Kiyomizu Seiryu-e Festival, also known as the Blue Dragon festival, only started up in the year 2000. Seiryu is one of the four mythical beasts said to guard Kyoto against misfortune. Seiryu is a god, however unlike most Buddhist representations of deities, the form he takes in our world is that of a large blue dragon. As the guardian of the east of the city, Seiryu’s legend is based on an ancient tale of a dragon who came to Kiyomizu Temple regularly to drink from its sacred waterfalls.
The monks take a long, colorful dragon on a tour of the local neighbourhood as thousands gather to watch in awe. Asian film buffs may notice something familiar about the dragon’s design. It was after all, created by costume designer Emi Wada. Wada is probably best known for her design work on the stylish martial arts epic The House of Flying Daggers. Indeed all the costumes worn by those taking part in the ritual show a clear melding of both Japanese and Chinese traditional influences.
The main parade departs from Kiyomizu Temple at 2pm and returns and 3.30pm.
Kyoto International Manga Anime Fair: the third weekend in September
Of course, many visitors to Japan are first drawn to the country by its beautiful, and vibrantly colored anime cartoons or manga comics. So, it seems only appropriate that our next stop is Western Japan’s largest event dedicated to these two uniquely Japanese art forms.
Enjoy exhibitions of art, talks from voice actors and artists, as well as, of course the chance to pick up some exclusive souvenirs of your favorite manga and anime characters.
The Kyoto International Manga Fair takes place across three venues over 2 days.
Those 3 venues are Miyako Messe, The Kyoto International Manga Museum and the Kyoto Museum of Crafts and Design. Detailed maps to the event can be found at the event homepage.
Admission is 1600 yen per person. Children of elementary school age or younger may enter for free.
Nara Uneme Festival: Mid September
We jump over to Nara next, for a bright and beautiful festival that belies its tragic origin story.
The Uneme Festival dates back to Japan’s Nara Period. In the western calendar, this equates to the year 710 AD until 784 AD.
At this time, legend has it that an “Uneme” a term used to refer to maids of the imperial court, fell in love with the sitting emperor. However, the emperor did not reciprocate these feelings.
In despair, the maid took her own life by drowning herself in Nara’s Sarusawa Lake.
Today however, Sarusawa is the scene for this joyous and colorful festival. The Uneme festival celebrates this maid’s life and seeks to help her spirit attain peace in the next world.
The event kicks off at 5pm, with a lantern precession from Nara Station to the site of the Umeme Shrine on the banks of Sarusawa. A memorial service is held at this point. The climax of the ceremony comes at 7pm when lanterns are set adrift on the banks of the lake, creating a warm glow all around the area. Finally, two dragon boats, one carrying a local lady dressed as Uneme, head out into the lake. They make offerings to the spirit of the original Uneme and also conduct other rituals in hopes of a bountiful autumn harvest.
Kamigamo Sumo and Choyo Festival, Sept 9th
It’s a little known fact that Sumo, Japan’s national sport, actually draws its origins from religious rituals. Keeping this tradition alive, we have the Kamigamo Sumo and Choyo Festival every September in Kyoto.
The Choyo ritual kicks off the day’s events. This involves priests from Kamigamo Shrine offering chrysanthemum flowers to the shrine gods. In Shinto, chrysanthemum flowers symbolize long life as well as protection from both bad luck and malevolent spirits.
Following the Choyo ritual’s completion we move onto the Kamigamo Sumo Festival. Here, local youngsters take part in a series of demonstration bouts showcasing this, most sacred of Japanese sports. While this is going on, visitors can also enjoy the sideshow of men in crow costumes performing rituals said to empower the wrestlers.
To round off this unique experience, participants drink some chrysanthemum sake. This is also said to bring good health and good fortune upon those who drink it.
Kamigamo Shrine is about 20 minutes’ walk from Kitayama Station on the Karasuma Line. The festival begins at 10am.
Nagahama Kita Biwako Great Fireworks Festival, Shiga, the 3rd weekend of September
Whilst most of the Kansai region’s more famous firework festivals happen in July and August, out in Shiga, they like to take their time with these things.
However, the Nagahama Kita Biwako Fireworks are more than worth the wait. After all, there’s a reason why they call this the “great” fireworks festival.
The festival runs over 4 days from Friday to Monday, with more than 10,000 fireworks going off each day.
These spectacular rockets light up, not just the sky, but they also illuminate the crisp, clear waters of Lake Biwa below.
Perhaps best of all though, this is one of Japan’s most accessible fireworks displays. The huge open space where the event takes place, combined with it being spread over 4 days means significantly lower crowd density.
If you’ve always wanted to see a proper Japanese fireworks festival in person, but have been put off by the crowds and congestion, then this might be the firework show for you.
Nagahama is approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes by local train from JR Osaka Station. The fireworks are only about 10 minutes walk from the station, with the show starting at 7pm each night.
Mozu Hachiman Autumn Festival, Mid-Late September
One of the most common types of Autumn festival across Japan is the Tsukimi, or Moon-Viewing Festival. In Osaka Prefecture, perhaps the best of these is the Mozu Hachiman Autumn Festival in Sakai City.
The centerpiece of this festival, apart from the Moon itself, obviously, is the Futon Daiko. This huge float covered in beautiful, ornate décor and housing a huge drum, is paraded through the city from 11am until after 10pm. This float is so massive, it typically takes between 70 to 80 local men to carry it at any one time.
The second part of the festival, reserved for the morning of the second day, involves local children releasing fish into the pond at Mozu Hachiman Shrine. This ritual symbolizes life, renewal and the continued prosperity of the city and its people. The Shrine is a 15 minute walk from Nakamozu Station on the Osaka Metro Midosuji Line.
Kyoto Comb Festival, The 4th Monday in September
One of my Japanese friends once remarked: “It seems like they have festivals for everything these days. Well, Kyoto seems to be doing little to dispel this notion, with this latest entry. Yes, you read the title correctly, this is a festival devoted to hair combs. Of course, this being Japan, these are no ordinary combs, and nor are they used in a bland, typical fashion. This festival honors the history of comb use among women to create the stunning and unique look perhaps best personified in the “Geisha” archetype. That of hair flawlessly styled and held in place with a series of ornate combs.
And so, the Kushi Matsuri, to give it its full Japanese title, keeps this tradition of beauty elegance, synonymous with Kyoto, in the hearts and minds of the city’s people. The venue is a small shrine in the Gion district called Yasui Konpiragu. Here, a grave, of sorts, exists where women can leave combs that they no longer use. Each year, the festival opens at 1pm with a speech and ritual from the Shrine’s head priest. Members of Kyoto’s Beauty Culture Club, fully decked out in their finest kimonos and several combs in their perfect hair, lead a parade from the shrine thereafter.
This is one of the lesser known September events in the Kansai area. But it definitely offers something a bit different and a unique photo opportunity for visitors.
Gion is in central Kyoto, just a short walk from several of the city’s major train stations and bus routes.
Kansai Queer Film Festival, Mid to Late September
This final event shares venues between Osaka and Kyoto. In essence this cooperation between cities often considered region rivals embodies the push for greater diversity and acceptance in society that this festival strives for.
As the name suggests, over a series of 4 days in late September, the Toyonaka Gender Equality Center (STEP) hosts several LGBT focused films from around the world.
About a week or so later, Goethe Institute Kamogawa, over in Kyoto, also hosts a series of films over consecutive nights.
The exact nature and dates of the festival changes each year. Please consult the official site for the latest show times and venues.
It is perhaps quite fitting that a showcase of human diversity rounds off this list of September events. As you will no doubt see from this list, diversity is what September in the Osaka area is all about. There’s so many different events and things to do. It could be said there is truly something for everyone in Osaka this September.
