The Ueno Tenjin Festival is a festival of the Ueno Tenjin Shrine (also called the Sugawara Shrine) located in Ueno Higashimachi, Iga City. The festival is held every October. Ueno Tenjin Shrine is dedicated to Sugawara Michizane.
The main event of the festival is a procession held on the last day, composed of two mikoshi (portable shrines), followed by a procession of more than a hundred demons and nine danjiri (festival floats). The danjiris’ parading order is annually decided by a drawing of lots ceremony at Ueno Tenjin Shrine on September 9.
The procession as a whole or the “Ueno Tenjin Festival Danjiri Event” was designated as an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property of Japan in 2002. Then in December 2016, it was added to UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list as one of the 33 festivals in a similar category from across Japan that were registered under a single entry.