Toyohashi Gion Festival

The Toyohashi Gion Festival is an annual shrine festival held in Toyohashi and centred on the rites of Yoshida Shrine in Sekiya-cho. It runs from the third Friday to Sunday of July each year.

The festival combines two main elements: fireworks dedicated by the shrine's eight parish districts and a sacred procession carrying the portable shrine from Yoshida Shrine to Susanoo Shrine, known locally as the Wakuguri Shrine, in Shinhonmachi.

Friday: Yoimatsuri (eve festival)
Tezutsu hand-held fireworks are dedicated before the deity, with each parish district contributing fireworks in the shrine grounds.

Saturday: Zenyasai (eve of the main festival)
A fireworks display is launched from the banks of the Toyokawa River, overlooking the ruins of Yoshida Castle. The parish districts also launch their own fireworks at the eastern end.

Sunday: Reisai (annual festival)
The sacred procession carries the portable shrine through the town, with figures representing Minamoto no Yoritomo, his wet nurse, and ten mounted retainers, accompanied by sasa odori dancing. It is known locally as the Yoritomo Procession.

Yoshida Shrine enshrines Gozu Tenno, a deity associated with warding off epidemics, and was formerly known as Yoshida Tennosha. Written records trace the origins of the Gion Festival to the goryoe rites held in Kyoto during the Heian period to quell epidemics. The Toyohashi festival has continued through the Sengoku and Edo periods into the modern era, supported by the community of the shrine's parish districts. During the Edo period, the lord of Yoshida Domain attended annually, and the fireworks became known nationally – Kyokutei Bakin, author of Nanso Satomi Hakkenden, praised them in a late-Edo essay as being counted the finest in the land.

In June 2026, the Toyohashi City Board of Education designated the festival an Intangible Folk Cultural Property under the name "Toyohashi Gion Festival (Fireworks and Sacred Procession of the Yoshida Shrine Rites)".