Baika-sai (Plum Festival)
Geisha and Maiko (apprentice Geisha) host "Nodate" (an outdoor tea ceremony) beneath the plum blossoms during the Baika-sai (Plum Blossom Festival), which takes place at Kitano-tenmangu Shrine each year on February 25. Visitors to the shrine can look on as they commemorate Sugawara Michizane on the anniversary of his death. Sugawara Michizane was a well-known scholar, politician, and plum-blossom aficionado of the Heian-era who is celebrated as the god of study in the shrine on the anniversary of his death.
Advance tickets to the festival are available and highly recommended as Baika-sai usually attracts a crowd of thousands.
Baika-Sai (Plum Blossom Festival)
Location: Kitano-tenmangu Shrine
Date: 25th Friday
Religious service: 10:00 - (at the main shrine)
Nodate (tea ceremony): 10:00 - 15:00
Fee: 1500 yen
(* Advance tickets are required to participate in "Nodate". Tickets go on sale for the first 3,000 people from January 25.)
Special opening of the plum blossoms garden
Period: Early Feb. - Mid Mar.
Entrance Fee: Adults 600 yen / Children 300 yen