Shizuoka City Festival

The Shizuoka Festival is Shizuoka City’s biggest spring festival. The three day event features a yatai-mura (outdoor food village), cherry blossoms, parades, performances, and cosplay. In fact, there’s not much that the Shizuoka Matsuri doesn’t have.

History

It’s a fairly new festival, having started in 1957, but takes its inspiration from a (possibly apocryphal) story about Tokugawa Ieyasu inviting his vassals to view the cherry blossoms. This explains why some participants dress up like they stepped out of the Edo period (1603–1868).

Shizuoka Festival schedule 2025

There are many performances and events throughout the schedule, including a yatai (food stall) village throughout. Here are some highlights.

April 5

• 17:00–19:50: Night Cherry Blossom Dance at Otemachi Kaijo
• 14:15: Cherry Blossom Viewing Parade — The parade starts at the East Gate of Senpu Castle Park travels to Sengen Shrine and then back to Senpu Castle Park; the whole thing lasts about two hours.
• 11:30 and 13:30: Oiran (courtesan) Procession

April 6

• 15:40–16:50: Night Cherry Blossom Dance at Otemachi Kaijo
• 14:05: Cherry Blossom Viewing Parade — The parade starts at the East Gate of Senpu Castle Park travels to Sengen Shrine and then back to Senpu Castle Park; the whole thing lasts about two hours.
• 11:30 and 13:30: Oiran (courtesan) Procession

How to get to the Shizuoka Matsuri

The main venues for the festival are Senpu Castle Park, Aoba Kaijo and Otemachi Kaijo; the latter two are south of Senpu Castle Park. All are within walking distance of Shizuoka Station, which is a stop on the Tokaido Shinkansen between Tokyo (80 minutes) and Kyoto (90 minutes). A local train from Tokyo takes approximately three hours with one or two changes (Atami and/or Numazu) and costs about half the price of the bullet train.