Koromo Matsuri 2026: Toyota’s Eight Floats and a Storm of Confetti

Most float festivals ask you to admire the craftsmanship. This one asks you to stand in a paper snowstorm while five tonnes of lacquer and gold leaf comes round a corner faster than it should. Every objective detail below comes from the organisers, the shrine, Toyota City, the prefecture and the railway itself.

Written by Yuu — a Nagoya native of 35 years. Published August 15, 2026.

This article may contain affiliate links. See our affiliate disclosure for details.

All festival details verified from official sources on August 15, 2026.

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On this page

1. What do you need to know in one minute?
2. What is Koromo Matsuri?
3. When is Koromo Matsuri 2026, and what is the schedule?
4. What are the highlights of Koromo Matsuri?
5. What makes the eight floats unusual?
6. How do you get to Koromo Matsuri from Nagoya?
7. What should you know before you go?
8. What do visitors actually say about it?
9. Frequently asked questions
10. Where can you check official information?
11. Related guides

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What Do You Need to Know in One Minute?

Koromo Matsuri 2026 runs Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 October in central Toyota City. Saturday is the eve, with the seven-lap night rite at 19:00. Sunday is the main day: floats into the shrine at 10:00, out again at 16:00, fireworks at 18:30.

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What Is Koromo Matsuri?

Koromo Matsuri is the reisai, the principal annual festival, of Koromo Shrine in Toyota City. The Preservation Society traces it to the Kan’ei era, 1624–1643, which makes it roughly four centuries old. Eight town floats are hauled through the streets and into the shrine precinct as an offering.

Start with the place. Toyota City is the home of Toyota Motor Corporation, and most visitors arrive expecting a company town. It was not always called Toyota. According to an interview with the Preservation Society’s secretary-general published by Tourism Toyota, the city’s official tourism association, this was the seat of the Koromo domain (挙母藩): the Miyake clan was enfeoffed at Koromo Castle in 1604, and Koromo has been the centre of the area ever since — and before the city took the carmaker’s name it was Koromo City. The festival keeps the old name, and with it the shape of the old castle town.

Four centuries of paper trail

Both the Preservation Society and the Toyota City Museum date the festival to the Kan’ei era (1624–1643). The earliest specific record cited is from 1664: four decorated carts, a lion dance from Minamimachi, and later two kasaboko canopy standards. In 1750 the domain ordered the lion dance abolished and float-building begun.

By the late 1770s the set of eight was complete — and here the official record disagrees with itself, which is worth saying plainly. The 2026 flyer says 1777. The Preservation Society’s website says An’ei 7 but glosses it as 1784, which does not match the era conversion. The secretary-general’s interview says An’ei 7, 1778. So: the eighth float joined in the late 1770s, and the exact year is not something the organisers agree on.

The children’s kabuki that is no longer there

The Edo-period version was grander than what survives. Each town had children aged eight to twelve perform two acts of kabuki kyogen at the shrine in competition with the others; the floats were then hauled into Shichishu Castle (七州城) — the site now occupied by the Toyota Municipal Museum of Art — where the lord and his retainers watched. It did not survive contact with the modern state: the kabuki went with a ban on children’s performing arts, the castle haul was dropped, and the dates moved from the 18th and 19th of the ninth lunar month to 18–19 October on the solar calendar.

Why the 18th and 19th? Ise Jingu’s Kannamesai harvest thanksgiving falls on 16–17 October, and Koromo Shrine — which the secretary-general describes as closely connected to Ise — held its own festival immediately after. The calendar has since moved again for a blunter reason: enough parishioners now work office jobs that the festival shifted onto the weekend.

The shrine underneath the festival

Koromo Shrine’s account of its own founding is careful, and I will be equally careful: it says there are several theories, and that the commonly told version dates to 1189, when Suzuki Shigeyoshi, a retainer of Minamoto no Yoshitsune, enshrined the deity Komori Myojin brought from Yoshino. In the Edo period it was Komori Daimyojin (子守大明神), the great deity who guards children; it took the name Koromo Jinja in 1871, and locals still call it okomori-san. In the precinct stands a camphor the city has designated a natural monument, an estimated 650 years old with a root circumference of 9.5 metres — worth finding, because the floats are turned in front of a great camphor on their way out on Sunday afternoon (no official text says outright that the two are the same tree, so I will not claim it).

One more thing, because it catches visitors out. On the two festival days the shrine performs no prayer services at all, and goshuin seal-stamps are handed over pre-written rather than brushed on the spot.

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When Is Koromo Matsuri 2026, and What Is the Schedule?

Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 October 2026 — already published. The Preservation Society posted its 2026 flyer on 20 July, and Toyota City’s tourism association and Aichi Prefecture’s tourism site both list the same two days.

The rule comes from the shrine itself: the third Sunday of October is hongaku (本楽), the main day, and the Saturday before it is shingaku (試楽), the eve. The official English leaflet puts it as “Third Sunday in October.” That makes 2027 look like 16–17 October, but no 2027 announcement exists yet — the flyer usually appears in the second half of July, so check then rather than booking on my arithmetic.

Saturday 17 October — shingaku

Sunday 18 October — hongaku

One caution on that last line, because the sources disagree. The organisers’ schedule and the prefecture’s Nishi-Mikawa tourism site both give 18:30–19:30, and the secretary-general said “from half past six the votive fireworks go up.” Aichi Now is the only source listing 19:00–19:30. Be in position by 18:15 and the discrepancy stops mattering.

What is not published yet

The Preservation Society publishes road-closure maps as six PDFs plus a route map. As of 15 August 2026 the files being served are still the 2025 editions, so I will not print closure times or streets here. Check the 日程別交通規制 links on the official site in the week before you travel.

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What Are the Highlights of Koromo Matsuri?

Four things carry this festival: the confetti storm around the lead float, the seven-lap night rite on Saturday, the charge into and out of the shrine precinct on Sunday, and the parting of the floats at a bank crossing afterwards. The fireworks are the full stop.

1. The confetti, and why the first float gets it

The reason for the paper is an old argument. The eight floats used to run in the same order every year, and that order was disputed; the Preservation Society’s Q&A says the row broke out in 1918 and was settled in 1920 into the rotating order used today. (The secretary-general dated the same dispute to the early Meiji period, so treat the year loosely.) The result is what matters: the float that goes first is the hanaguruma (華車), and it acquired kusudama decorative balls, special ornament and confetti. In 2026 the hanaguruma is Nakamachi (中町) — printed on the official flyer, and different every year.

What the paper is for is the part I had not seen in English anywhere. Think of purifying salt, the secretary-general says: it carries the deity’s protection out from the float. In his childhood it was cut-up flyers; today it is coloured paper cut into long narrow tanzaku strips, which he says flutter as they fall — the paper stock and the throwing technique are still being adjusted to make it look better. And some of Nakamachi’s confetti is printed — catching a printed piece before it touches the ground and putting it in your wallet is said to bring money luck.

2. Nanatabi Mairi, the seven laps

Saturday night, 19:00 to 21:00, and the more atmospheric half of the weekend. Koromo Shrine’s description: shortly before seven, young people from each town gather at the entrance to the precinct in happi coats carrying lanterns, purify themselves in the Yahagi River, then circle seven times between the torii and the shrine hall. It begins in good order, to kiyari work songs; partway through, each town turns its backs inward around its tall takahari lantern, packs together, and the chanting takes over.

Tourism Toyota frames the purpose plainly: all eight towns circling seven times in prayer for a good harvest. The secretary-general adds the detail that makes it click — children walk the early laps with red hozuki lanterns tied to bamboo, and after three laps they drop out and the adults take over. (The shrine calls the lanterns sasa-chochin, bamboo-grass lanterns; the descriptions differ.) He also mentions night stalls, though no official source says how many or where.

3. Hikikomi and hikidashi: the charge into the shrine

Sunday is built around two cannon shots. At 10:00 the signal goes and the floats enter the precinct one at a time, each on the call of its town’s representative, at a run. They then stand in a single line from the worship hall to the torii until 16:00 — the one stretch of the weekend, as the shrine points out, when you can actually look at the floats properly.

At 16:00 the second cannon starts the hikidashi, and this is the one to stay for. The floats must be turned in front of a great camphor and brought out — a delicate negotiation between the ropes and the rear steering, as the Preservation Society puts it. The shrine gives the number to plan around: about 30 minutes from the first float moving to the last one clearing the precinct, which it calls the climax of the festival. The secretary-general’s line is the one to keep: the steering crews’ shoulders are swollen the day after.

4. Nakiwakare, the mikoshi and the fireworks

At 16:35 the floats reach the crossing at Motoshiromachi 1-chome, in front of the Toyota Shinkin Bank head office, and split: the upper-town floats south, the lower-town floats north. This is nakiwakare, “parting in tears,” and it is not just a goodbye — the hanaguruma’s town gives formal thanks that the festival passed safely and hands the role on to next year’s hanaguruma town. If you want this festival’s emotional register rather than its spectacle, this is the quarter of an hour to be there for.

Earlier, between the two cannon shots, the shrine’s mikoshi is transferred to a gosho-guruma ox-carriage and taken on a circuit of roughly six kilometres through the parish, led by Sarutahiko, returning just before 16:00. Then, from 18:30, the votive fireworks. No shell count is published; the secretary-general’s description was that they are not on the scale of Toyota’s summer Oiden fireworks but are big enough, and that hearing them is how the town knows another year has finished safely. No official source announces a ticketed viewing area or names an official best spot.

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What Makes the Eight Floats Unusual?

They steer only from the rear, their upper stage stands on six pillars rather than the usual four, and each is 5.5 to 6 metres tall in motion and reportedly four to five tonnes. All eight were designated tangible folk cultural properties of Aichi Prefecture in 1964.

Note what that designation is and is not. These are prefecturally and municipally designated cultural properties; the organisers, the shrine, Toyota City and Aichi Prefecture all describe them that way and make no UNESCO claim, so neither will I. If UNESCO listings are what you are chasing, our guide to Inuyama Festival is the better starting point.

The six pillars have two explanations in the official record. The Preservation Society’s website says it may have been to allow more carving to be attached. The secretary-general told Tourism Toyota something more concrete: elsewhere in Aichi the top of a float is where karakuri automata perform and four pillars suffice — at Koromo, people ride up there, so it takes six.

The carving is the other reason to look closely: work by Tachikawa Washiro of Suwa, Murayama Gunpo of Hida-Takayama, and Segawa Shigemitsu and Hayase Chotaro of Nagoya — the Suwa, Hida-Takayama and Nagoya carving workshops whose world you meet again at Takayama Festival. Each town’s omaku main curtain carries a different scene:

One qualification on that table, taken from the flyer itself: except for Kitamachi’s, the curtains listed are the towns’ older curtains (旧幕), which is what the flyer records. Kitamachi’s Seven Lucky Gods curtain of 1975 is the current one; the town’s older curtain, from 1831, was plain.

Three of the towns carry the prefix kyu- (旧), “former.” The Q&A explains why: when the castle moved, families from the old Higashimachi, Minamimachi and Honmachi districts around the shrine resettled in what is now the Juboku district, and took their floats with them. The names record an address they left.

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How Do You Get to Koromo Matsuri from Nagoya?

Meitetsu’s own fare search gives ¥900 for adults from Meitetsu Nagoya to Toyotashi, 57 minutes with one change at Chiryu. There is also a no-change route: the Tsurumai subway line runs straight through to Toyotashi. From the station it is about 10 minutes on foot east to the shrine.

Both figures come from Meitetsu’s official timetable and fare search, run for the morning of the festival itself. On the first route the train is a tokkyu with some reserved cars, so ¥900 gets you into the general cars with no supplement; you only need a Mu Ticket for a reserved seat.

The route visitors miss

The second option is the one the organisers themselves recommend. Nagoya’s Tsurumai subway line runs through onto Meitetsu track and terminates at Toyotashi. Board a train marked 豊田市行 (“for Toyotashi”) and you will not change at all — it becomes the Meitetsu Toyota Line at Akaike and the Mikawa Line at Umetsubo, and you stay in your seat for just over 50 minutes.

This is the bit of the Nagoya network that visitors never find on their own. Nothing at Nagoya Station tells you that a subway train can end up in Toyota — you have to already know to look for 豊田市行 on the front of a Tsurumai-line train at Fushimi. I have not stood in the confetti at Koromo Matsuri, but I have ridden that through service plenty of times, and it is the single most useful thing I can tell a first-time visitor heading east.

From Nagoya Station there is a separate subway fare for the hop to Fushimi on the Higashiyama line, on top of the ¥830 above. The Nagoya City Transportation Bureau’s distance-based fare table starts at ¥210 for adults for its first zone, up to 3 km. I am deliberately not printing a single through-fare from Nagoya Station to Toyotashi: neither operator publishes that combined figure, and inventing one by adding numbers together is exactly how travel articles get fares wrong. Tap an IC card and let the gate do the arithmetic — our guide to getting around Nagoya covers the machines and cards.

Arriving, and the walk

From Toyotashi Station, leave by the east exit, go straight, and turn right at the Kitamachi 4-chome crossing. The Preservation Society puts the walk at about 10 minutes, roughly 800 metres; Koromo Shrine’s own access page says 13, so budget within that range and add time for crowds. On the Aichi Loop Line (愛知環状鉄道), get off at Shin-Toyota (新豊田): the connecting walkway reaches Toyotashi Station’s east exit in two to three minutes. Buses serve the Toyotashi Station west-exit terminal, but the organisers warn that services divert and some stops are suspended across both days, so get off at Toyotashi Station and walk.

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What Should You Know Before You Go?

Do not drive to the shrine — the organisers say so explicitly. Check the official site on the morning itself if the weather is bad, because the floats may not run. And come on Sunday afternoon if you only get one visit, because that is when everything happens.

Driving: the organisers’ own answer is no

This is stated more bluntly on the official access guide than on most festival sites I read. During Koromo Matsuri, the shrine’s visitor car park cannot be used; large-scale traffic restrictions are in force and heavy congestion is expected. The instruction is not to head for the shrine at all but to divert to a car park near Toyotashi Station — about a 20-minute walk away.

If you do drive, Toyota’s city-centre Free Parking scheme is worth knowing: show your parking ticket when you use a member shop or facility and you get three hours validated free. Approach times are about 15 minutes from the Toyota, Toyota-Higashi and Toyota-Matsudaira interchanges — ordinary-day times, and this is not an ordinary day.

If it rains

The organisers’ Q&A is refreshingly direct: the floats may not run. Representatives meet on the morning of each day — Saturday and Sunday assessed separately — and the decision is posted on the official website as soon as it is taken. Nothing official is published about the fireworks, the night rite or the mikoshi in wet weather. Our guide to when to visit Nagoya covers what mid-October is usually like here.

Two things the official site does well

The Preservation Society runs a GPS tracker for the floats, linked from every page of its site — on a day when eight floats are moving through eight districts and the roads are closed, that beats any map I could give you. And on the question people always ask, the Q&A is careful, so I will be too: joining the festival proper is for residents of the old Koromo districts, but on the day you may take a rope without a happi coat, provided you do it somewhere safe and ask the person in charge while the float is stopped. That is permission with conditions, not an invitation.

What is not published

I would rather tell you what is missing than fill it in. No official source publishes an attendance figure, so if you see “hundreds of thousands” elsewhere, it is not coming from the organisers or the city. None lists an admission charge either — and equally, none states that entry is free, so I will not write “free.” Nothing official covers toilets, first-aid points or rest areas; ask through the Preservation Society’s enquiry form if that is decisive. And if you plan to publish photographs commercially, the Q&A directs media requests through Toyota City’s commerce and tourism division.

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What Do Visitors Actually Say About It?

I have not been to this one myself, so rather than invent an afternoon in the confetti, here is where to see it through other people’s eyes — and what the official language gives away about the scale.

• Tourism Toyota’s own video, on its official Koromo Matsuri video page — the fastest way to judge whether the confetti lives up to the photographs
• Toyota City’s official tourism YouTube channel: @visit_toyota_city
• Tourism Toyota on Instagram: @tourismtoyota, and its visitor-facing account @visit_toyota_city — both listed on the association’s own SNS page

Be aware that the festival has no official social media account of its own — the Instagram links on koromomatsuri.com belong to sponsoring businesses, and everything above is Toyota City’s tourism association rather than the Preservation Society.

On how crowded it gets, read the official phrasing rather than a number, because there is no number. Tourism Toyota’s advisory asks visitors to allow extra time and use public transport because congestion is expected in the city centre and on surrounding roads; the organisers go further and tell drivers not to approach the shrine at all. The other tell is the confetti clean-up answer, where the Preservation Society apologises for mess it has not managed to clear. You do not write those sentences about a quiet local event.

What I will not do is quote strangers’ blog posts back at you as though they were reporting. Where a travel article says “visitors describe it as unforgettable” with no link attached, somebody wrote that sentence at a desk.

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Frequently Asked Questions

When is Koromo Matsuri 2026?

Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 October 2026. The Preservation Society’s 2026 flyer gives 17 October for shingaku, the eve, and 18 October for hongaku, the main day. The rule is the third Sunday of October plus the Saturday before it.

What time do the floats enter and leave Koromo Shrine?

A signal cannon at 10:00 on the Sunday starts the hikikomi, when the eight floats charge into the precinct one at a time. They stand in a line until 16:00, when a second cannon starts the hikidashi. The shrine says all eight take about 30 minutes to clear the grounds.

How do I get to Koromo Matsuri from Nagoya?

Meitetsu’s own fare search gives ¥900 for adults and ¥450 for children from Meitetsu Nagoya to Toyotashi, 57 minutes with one change at Chiryu. There is also a no-change option: Fushimi to Toyotashi on the through service is ¥830 in about 52 minutes. Then a 10-minute walk east.

Why do they throw confetti at Koromo Matsuri?

The running order of the eight floats rotates every year, and the float that goes first is the hanaguruma (華車). The organisers say it took on kusudama and special decorations, with confetti as part of that staging. The secretary-general describes the paper as working like purifying salt. In 2026 the hanaguruma is Nakamachi.

What is Nanatabi Mairi?

The Saturday night rite, 19:00 to 21:00. Koromo Shrine says young people from each town gather at the precinct entrance in happi coats with lanterns, purify themselves in the Yahagi River, then circle between the torii and the shrine hall seven times in prayer for a good harvest.

Can I drive to Koromo Matsuri and park at the shrine?

No. The organisers state that the shrine’s visitor car park cannot be used during the festival, that large-scale traffic restrictions apply and that heavy congestion is expected. They ask drivers to park near Toyotashi Station instead, about a 20-minute walk away. Toyota’s Free Parking scheme validates three hours free.

What happens at Koromo Matsuri if it rains?

The organisers’ own Q&A says the floats may not run at all. Representatives meet on the morning of each day, Saturday and Sunday separately, and the decision is posted on the official website. No official statement covers the fireworks or the night rite in wet weather, so check koromomatsuri.com that morning.

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Where Can You Check Official Information?

Four sources cover this festival properly: the Preservation Society, Koromo Shrine, Toyota City’s tourism association and Aichi Prefecture. Only the Preservation Society publishes the year’s flyer, the road-closure maps and the bad-weather decision, so check that one last before you travel.

• Koromo Matsuri official site: koromomatsuri.com — schedule, Q&A, access guide, the year’s flyer PDF, road-closure maps and the float GPS tracker. Enquiry form
• Official English leaflet (PDF): koromomatsuri.com — Koromo Matsuri outline; also in Chinese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Filipino and Vietnamese
• Koromo Shrine: koromojinja.com — the rite, Nanatabi Mairi, the shrine’s history, and the note that no prayer services are held on the two festival days. Shrine office 0565-32-0718
• Tourism Toyota, Toyota City’s official tourism association: tourismtoyota.jp — Koromo Matsuri, plus its interview with the Preservation Society’s secretary-general. Enquiries 0565-85-7777
• Aichi Now, Aichi Prefecture’s official tourism site: aichinow.pref.aichi.jp

A note on how these pages behave through the year: the Preservation Society posts the coming year’s flyer in the second half of July and swaps the road-closure PDFs closer to the date, so between festivals some pages still serve last year’s files. Trust the flyer.

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Related Guides

• Central Japan Festival Calendar — every major festival in the region, month by month
• Autumn Festivals in Nagoya & Central Japan — what else runs in the same weeks
• Nagoya Matsuri — the city’s own October festival, on the same weekend in 2026
• Korankei Autumn Leaves Day Trip — the maple gorge in the same city, peaking weeks later
• Setomono Matsuri — Seto’s pottery festival, the other Aichi town that closes its centre
• Getting Around Nagoya — subways, IC cards and the through services that reach Toyota