Kitano Tenmangu Baikasai Plum Blossom Festival 2027 (Kyoto)

Baikasai is held every 25 February at Kitano Tenmangu, the Kyoto shrine dedicated to Sugawara no Michizane, the patron deity of learning, on the anniversary of his death. The rite has about 900 years of history: the shrine offers two mounds of steamed rice, one large and one small, and kodate, special offerings decorated with sprigs of white and red plum. On the same day the geiko and maiko of the Kamishichiken district serve matcha at the Baikasai Nodate Ochanoyu, an outdoor tea ceremony in the Funade-no-niwa garden, open to anyone who buys a ticket. The 25th is also the shrine's monthly fair day, so stalls line the approach all day, and the plum garden is usually open during this season. A good day for travellers who want to see a shrine rite, take tea with geiko, and walk among the plum trees in one visit.

Sugawara no Michizane, the scholar and statesman enshrined at Kitano Tenmangu, was sent away from the capital to Dazaifu through a Fujiwara intrigue and died there on 25 February. He loved plum blossoms all his life, so the shrine marks the anniversary of his death with an offering ritual of rice and plum sprigs to honor his memory. The Nodate Ochanoyu tea ceremony was added in 1952, the 1,050th anniversary of his death, in memory of the grand tea gathering Toyotomi Hideyoshi held at the shrine. Anyone with a ticket can join and take tea served by Kamishichiken's geiko and maiko, and the brown rice used in the kodate offerings is later handed out at the shrine as a charm against misfortune.