Yabusame 2026 Highlights: Kamakura, Nikko and Meiji Jingu This Autumn

Yabusame (流鏑馬) is the art of drawing a bow and loosing arrows from the back of a galloping horse. The archer, dressed in full hunting attire, races down a track and shoots arrows clean through a series of wooden targets (板的) along the way. It's a samurai ritual that dates all the way back to Minamoto no Yoritomo, with more than eight hundred years of history behind it. Every autumn, shrines all across Japan offer it up as a sacred dedication. If you happen to be heading to Japan in the second half of this year, these yabusame events are absolutely worth working into your itinerary.

Let's start with the most iconic of them all: Tsurugaoka Hachimangu in Kamakura, on 9/16. This is the real deal, founded by Minamoto no Yoritomo himself and passed down in an unbroken line for eight centuries. It's performed by the Ogasawara-ryu school on the final day of the grand autumn festival, and the atmosphere is as solemn and ceremonial as it gets. If you want to see authentic, by-the-book yabusame, this is the one to put at the top of your list.

Next up is the autumn grand festival at Nikko Toshogu on 10/16. The archers start riding down the main approach around 1:30 in the afternoon, framed against the World Heritage cedar-lined path and shrine buildings, and the whole scene is genuinely majestic. As a bonus, the very next day there's the Hyakumono-zoroe Sennin Musha Gyoretsu, a thousand-warrior procession, so you can easily make a two-day trip of it.

If you're staying in Tokyo and it's your first time seeing yabusame, my top pick is Meiji Jingu on 11/3 (Culture Day). It's easy to reach right in the city with great transit access, and as it happens, this is the very same shrine that's home to the Shiseikan kyudo dojo, so you can soak up a little of that connection while you're there.

There are a few more to choose from too: Mishima Taisha in Shizuoka on 8/17, Samukawa Shrine in Kanagawa on 9/19, and the kasagake (笠懸) at Kamigamo Shrine in Kyoto on 10/18. Kasagake is yabusame's sister sport, also shooting from horseback, but the targets are trickier and the format is more freewheeling. It's a great watch in its own right.

One little heads-up: the dates above are pieced together from each shrine's customary schedule in past years and their official announcements. Yabusame does occasionally get rescheduled due to weather, a rider taking a fall, or other circumstances, so please double-check the shrine's official website one more time before you set off. Here's hoping you get to witness that moment when the kabura-ya (鏑矢), the whistling arrow, comes shrieking through the target.

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