Reading the New Year’s harvest through fire and azuki beans: Takaoka’s crop divination
Takaoka Azuki-Yaki Festival
Festival information
EVENT INFORMATION- Season / frequency
- Every year on January 15 / Every year
- Location
- Takamatsu Community Center
- Area
- Nagano Prefecture・Nagano City(From Tokyo: approx. 1 h 20 min–1 h 50 min · bullet train)Prefecture-level estimate to a main station or airport, not the venue. Airport access, check-in and onward travel are extra; remote areas and islands can take much longer.
- Wishes behind the festival
- Last updated
- 2026/11/11
This Little New Year’s event passed down in the Takaoka District involves gathering around the Dondon-yaki bonfire and reading the way azuki beans roast to divine the year’s weather and crop yields.
About Takaoka Azuki-Yaki Festival
The Takaoka Azuki-Yaki Festival is a Little New Year event in which people divine the year’s weather and agricultural yields from how azuki beans roast and other signs at the start of the year.
Following Dondon-yaki, the Little New Year fire festival, people heat earthenware plates over the irori hearth and roast azuki beans one at a time, reading their movements and other signs.
This event embodies folk knowledge rooted in everyday life, including the division of local roles, record-keeping, and the handover of the year-leader’s role.
Festival highlights
A highlight is the sequence that moves from grilling mochi and monozukuri over the remaining embers of the Dondon-yaki to roasting azuki beans.
People heat earthenware plates over the irori hearth, brush off the ash with a bamboo fire-blowing tube, and add the azuki beans one at a time while reciting set phrases.
The movement of the roasted azuki beans is used to divine the harvest of rice, wheat, beans, other grains, vegetables, silkworms, mulberry, and more; a recorder writes down the results.
Reading the New Year’s harvest through fire and azuki beans: Takaoka’s crop divination
What to expect
On the day before the event, each household makes a Dosojin figure from Japanese wax tree wood and places it on the household Shinto altar.
On the morning of the 15th, people make monozukuri and prepare for the Dondon-yaki in the open space, using kadomatsu, , daruma dolls, old talismans, New Year’s calligraphy, and other items.
In the evening, people offer Dosojin figures at the monument and hold the fire festival and grill mochi. Then, for the azuki roasting, they assign roles and proceed with the divination and record-keeping.
The event concludes with a sake gathering featuring Hachimachi cuisine, followed by a closing handclap and the handover of the year-leader’s role.
Location and access
- Venue and address
Takamatsu Community Center (Takaoka District)
Event venue 長野県長野市 高松公民館
This map uses the venue name. Check the official guide for the event area and entrances.
Dates and season
- Season
Every year on January 15
- Frequency
Every year
Accommodation and hotels PR
Showing nearby accommodation.
Prices and availability are current at the time of retrieval. For multi-night stays, only the first night’s price is shown. Confirm the final price and directions to the venue with the booking provider. Select your dates again when using the area search link. Search area: within 3 km of Central Nagano Prefecture / Nagano City (the search is not centered on the festival venue)
Nearby attractions
北野美術館
長野県長野市にある美術館
戸隠神社
長野県長野市の戸隠山周辺に五社を配する神社
長野県信濃美術館・東山魁夷館
長野県長野市にあった美術館
長野県立美術館
長野県長野市にある美術館
写真：photo: Qurren ( talk ) Taken with Canon PowerShot G9 X / CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo source ·Origins and History of Takaoka Azuki-Yaki Festival
The Takaoka Azuki-Yaki Festival is a crop-divination event passed down following Dondon-yaki during Little New Year.
In the past, people gathered at the home of a family that had celebrated a wedding or a new house the previous year, but the recorded explanation gives Takamatsu Community Center as the current venue.
On November 28, 1996, it was selected as an Intangible Folk Cultural Property for which measures such as documentation should be undertaken.
Official information
An explanation of the “Takaoka Azuki-Yaki Festival” is listed in the Database of Nationally Designated Cultural Properties.
It is also listed on Nagano City’s official website among the Intangible Folk Cultural Properties for which measures such as documentation should be undertaken.
Takaoka Azuki-Yaki Festival at a Glance
The Takaoka Azuki-Yaki Festival is a Little New Year crop-divination event that carries forward the fire of Dondon-yaki and uses the way azuki beans roast to divine the weather and agricultural yields.
This local New Year event unfolds in a continuous sequence, from preparing Dosojin figures and monozukuri, grilling mochi, and assigning roles to reciting phrases, recording the results, and holding a sake gathering with the handover of the year-leader’s role.
It is also recognized in cultural-property records as folk knowledge passed down in the Takaoka District.
Sources and references
Japanese Festivals.jp Editorial Team
Celebrating local culture and helping you discover a side of Japan you never knew.
Article updated: 2026/11/11
