Somei Yoshino cherry blossoms at Koma shri (Photo: Lynda Hogan)

Koma Shrine Cherry Blossom Festival

Annual sakura matsuri with light up and sakura goshuin

Somei Yoshino cherry blossoms at Koma shri (Photo: Lynda Hogan)
Lynda Hogan   - 1 min read

The 1300 year old Koma Shrine in Hidaka City has two cherry blossom tree celebrations annually. This is the event information for the second cherry blossom celebration; a cherry blossom festival. This cherry blossom festival is usually held on the first Sunday of April. However, in 2021 it was held on the last Sunday of March as the cherry blossoms were early.

Koma Shrine has a 300 year old Higanzakura, a weeping cherry and an avenue of Somei Yoshino cherry trees. During the cherry blossom festival, the cherry blossoms are lit up at night. Also, around the period of the festival you can pick up a limited edition sakura goshuin. A goshuin is the seal or stamp of a temple or shrine. They have traditional performances on the day of the festival too, such as a shishimai lion dance performance.

Getting there

The nearest station is JR Komagawa shrine. It takes about 20 to 25 minutes to walk to the shrine from the station.

By car, the nearest interchange is the Sayama-Hidaka Interchange of the Ken-o expressway. It is about a 20 to 25 minute drive away.

Lynda Hogan

Lynda Hogan @lynda.hogan

Lynda has been in Japan for 20 years and blogging about Saitama on her personal blog insaitama.com for 14 of them.  Despite its central location, just North of Tokyo, Saitama is still quite unknown to the international tourist, but frequented by domestic travelers. It is a great place to experien...