Jul 9, 2025
A reason to visit Hakusan Shrine this July
If you do happen to be in Niigata City this July (for the first few weeks, anyway!) then I would recommend stopping past Hakusan Shrine for their Tanabata Windchime Festival. There are around 1000 windchimes on their grounds (until July 21st), and as well as sounding lovely they just look so pretty and photogenic!
I really enjoy when shrines have events like this, that bridge a bit of tradition with seasonality and fun. If you won't be in Niigata City but will be heading to Nagaoka, my recommendation there is Kinpu Shrine which also has some great windchime displays and loads of floral color.
1 Comment
BigfamJapan
6 hours ago
Pretty. Interesting that they take them down so early, perhaps because typhoons become more prevalent from the end of July. Around here most of them are up until August 31st, but its not unusual for them to take them down for a couple of days if there's a typhoon - big job taking them down and then putting them up again!