Kumata Danjiri Matsuri

Danjiri Matsuri (cart-pulling festivals) can be seen all over Japan. The Kumata-Danjiri or also known as the Natsu Matsuri (summer festival) is one of the more popular of those festivals in Osaka and often draws up to 300,000 or more visitors watching the spectacle. The festival is from the 11-14th July each year and during the 12th at night seems to be the best time to see and enjoy it!

There are 9 carts spread all around the little side roads of the Kumata Jinja. I only got to see one of them. The carts don’t really get too close to the shrine during that evening which makes it a bit tricky to locate them. Make sure you are good on foot and don’t get lost when looking for them if you ever plan to visit this festival!

Travel: The Hirano train station (JR Kansai Line) is close to the shrine. Coming by car is a bit of a problem (not much parking) and not recommended.

Websites: The Kumata Jinja webpage is the official one (all in Japanese). There doesn’t seem to be much information about the festival available in English and i guess that explains why there weren’t too many tourists/foreigners there.