What's on in Tokyo
16 events in September 2027: 7 exhibitions, 6 festivals, 1 performance, 1 anime and games event and 1 food event, from headline festivals to neighbourhood fairs. 6 of them are annual events whose 2027 dates are still to be confirmed, listed with their usual window.
Humidity eases through the month and typhoon risk peaks. The September sumo tournament runs at Ryogoku, and neighbourhood autumn festivals start in the last two weeks. More on the season in Tokyo in autumn.
MapWhat's on each day of September 2027, events starting that day first. Annual events still waiting for their 2027 dates aren't listed here.
世界はあそびでできている：アート・子ども・社会
Station Roppongi (Hibiya Line, Oedo Line), 3 min walk
A group show about play, with contemporary works from the 1950s to now: spontaneous games, immersive installations that play with the senses, projects that question social rules and participatory pieces. Children helped shape it, so it's made to work for every age.
mattlucht, CC BY 2.0 京都国立近代美術館所蔵作品にみる 京(みやこ)のくらし――二十四節気を愉しむ
Station Tokyo (JR lines, Marunouchi south exit), 5 min walk
Works from the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, arranged by the 24 solar terms of the old calendar, looking at the nature, festivals and art of daily life in Kyoto through the year. It's the first time that museum's collection has been shown together in Tokyo. The display changes on August 4.
藤島武二, 創造の軌跡
Time 10:00 to 18:00, Fridays until 20:00 Station Kyobashi (Ginza Line), 5 min walk
A retrospective of Fujishima Takeji (1867 to 1943), a leading figure of early Japanese oil painting who studied in Europe from 1905 and later painted profile portraits of women and a series of sunrises. Alongside the museum's own Fujishima paintings, it shows for the first time a recently donated archive of his drawings, travel sketches and papers.
MIKI Yoshihito, CC BY 2.0 第61回ヴェネチア・ビエンナーレ国際美術展日本館展示帰国展 荒川ナッシュ医
Time 10:00 to 18:00, Fridays until 20:00 Station Kyobashi (Ginza Line), 5 min walk
The Japan Pavilion exhibition from the 61st Venice Biennale in 2026, by the artist Ei Arakawa-Nash, comes back to Tokyo as a homecoming show under the title Grass Babies, Moon Babies.
MIKI Yoshihito, CC BY 2.0 レンブラントからモネ、ゴッホ ハマー美術館展
Station Ueno (JR Yamanote Line, Park exit), 7 min walk
About 70 works from the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, the first time its collection has been shown as a group in Japan, with paintings by Rembrandt, Moreau, Gauguin and Van Gogh among them. The show also looks at the eye of the founder, Armand Hammer, who collected art throughout his life.
だらだら祭り
Station Onarimon (Toei Mita Line), 3 min walk
Japan's longest festival drags on for 11 days, hence the name, at a small shrine a short walk from Tokyo Tower. Stalls sell fresh ginger and chigibako good-luck boxes as they have since the Edo period, when ginger fields surrounded the shrine, with the mikoshi parade on the main mid-festival day.
調布花火
Station Chofu or Keio-Tamagawa (Keio Line), 10 to 20 min walk
About 10,000 shells over the Tamagawa in an hour, including the long-running Hanabillusion show set to music. There are paid seats in three areas, and the riverbank around them is free.
大相撲九月場所
Time Top-division bouts from about 15:45, yokozuna matches around 17:30 Station Ryogoku (JR Sobu Line, Toei Oedo Line), 2 min walk
The autumn honbasho brings 15 days of top-division sumo to the sport's home arena, with bouts building from mid-morning to the yokozuna matches around 5pm. Cheapest same-day arena seats sell at the box office each morning, and the final weekend decides the Emperor's Cup.
Gregg Tavares, CC BY 2.0 東京ゲームショウ
Station Kaihin-Makuhari (JR Keiyo Line), 5 min walk
Japan's biggest video game show fills the halls of Makuhari Messe in Chiba, about 40 minutes from Tokyo Station, with playable demos, stage events and cosplay. The 2027 show runs five days, and the first days have been for trade visitors only, so check which are public days before you buy. Tickets are sold online in advance.
ギルバート＆ジョージ展
Station Nogizaka (Chiyoda Line), direct from exit 6
The London duo's first large show in Japan in 30 years, running from their 1969 Singing Sculpture film to the huge photographic Pictures series of recent years, with photographs and film from their 1970s visits to Japan. It comes to Tokyo after Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art.
Dick Thomas Johnson, CC BY 2.0 赤坂氷川祭
Station Akasaka (Chiyoda Line), 8 min walk
Three-day autumn festival at a 1730 shrine that survived the war intact, with Edo-period floats, a Sunday parade of mikoshi joined by Akasaka geisha, and bon odori in the tree-shaded grounds.
Guilhem Vellut, CC BY 2.0 画中画 絵をめぐる絵の冒険 ルネサンスから現代、そのさきへ
Time 9:30 to 17:30, Fridays and Saturdays to 20:00 (museum's general hours, last entry 30 minutes before closing)
A large show on paintings that depict other paintings, tracing how European artists handled the act of depicting and the act of looking from the Renaissance to today. Loans include works from the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, including Habsburg pieces, plus the Musee d'Orsay and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. It is the museum's only venue for the show.
Jean-Pierre Dalbéra, CC BY 2.0 ふくろ祭り
Station Ikebukuro (JR, Tokyo Metro, Tobu, Seibu), west exit
Toshima Ward's biggest festival packs the streets around Ikebukuro's west exit with around 15 mikoshi carried by more than 3,000 bearers, plus taiko and folk-dance stages. The Saturday-evening joint mikoshi parade in front of the station is the highlight; the Tokyo Yosakoi dance half of the festival follows in October.
Asanagi, CC0 1.0 Time 11:00 to 16:00 Station Shin-Bamba or Kita-Shinagawa (Keikyu Main Line), 1 min walk
The old Tokaido post-town streets fill with an Edo-costume parade, oiran procession, street performers, and food stalls run by the shotengai shops. A neighbourhood festival celebrating Shinagawa-juku, the first station on the Edo-to-Kyoto highway.
ナマステ・インディア
Time 10:00 to 20:00 (2026)
One of Japan's largest Indian festivals, with food stalls and stage performances in Yoyogi Park. About 200,000 visitors were expected in 2026.
Roam Tokyo 北区花火会
Time About 18:30 to 19:30
Fireworks over the Arakawa near the Iwabuchi lock in late September, with paid seating areas.
大江戸骨董市
Time 9:00 to 16:00 Station Yurakucho (JR Yurakucho Line) or Tokyo Station Marunouchi south exit, 1 min walk
Japan's largest outdoor antique market, held on the 1st and 3rd Sundays of the month with 250 or so dealers selling old kimono, ceramics, woodblock prints, and retro homeware. Dates occasionally shift and there is usually no August edition, so check the official schedule before going.
Jean-Pierre Dalbéra, CC BY 2.0 花園神社骨董市
Station Shinjuku-sanchome (Marunouchi, Fukutoshin, Toei Shinjuku Lines), 3 min walk
Small, atmospheric antique market held almost every Sunday from early morning in the grounds of Shinjuku's Hanazono Shrine, with 25 to 40 stalls of old ceramics, kimono, coins, and curios. Skipped on festival weekends and in bad weather, so go early and have a backup plan.
Bernard Spragg. NZ, Public Domain Mark 1.0 靖国神社骨董市
Station Kudanshita (Tozai, Hanzomon, Toei Shinjuku Lines), 5 min walk
A modest Sunday antique market along the tree-lined outer approach to Yasukuni Shrine, with 10 to 20 dealers selling pottery, old tools, and militaria from sunrise to sunset. Small enough to browse in half an hour on the way to the shrine or nearby Chidorigafuchi.
Guilhem Vellut, CC BY 2.0 とげぬき地蔵の縁日
Station Sugamo (JR Yamanote Line, Toei Mita Line), 5 min walk
Temple fair days at Koganji, home of the healing Togenuki Jizo, held on the 4th, 14th, and 24th of every month when food and trinket stalls line Jizo-dori shopping street. Nicknamed the Harajuku for grandmas, it is one of Tokyo's most charming old-school street scenes.
雑司ヶ谷手創り市
Time 10:00 to 16:00 Station Kishibojin-mae (Tokyo Sakura Tram) or Zoshigaya (Tokyo Metro Fukutoshin Line), 3 to 7 min walk
Craft market held on the third Sunday of most months in the cedar-shaded grounds of Kishimojin Temple, where up to 200 makers may only sell things they made themselves. One of the best places in Tokyo to buy ceramics, leather goods, and prints directly from the artists.
Nesnad, CC BY 4.0 高幡不動尊ござれ市
Time 8:00 to 16:00 Station Takahatafudo (Keio Line), 2 min walk
Around 120 dealers fill the grounds of this major Kanto temple on the third Sunday of every month, selling old kimono, clocks, toys, and farmhouse finds. The name Gozare roughly means anything goes as long as it is old, and prices run cheaper than central Tokyo markets.
Time 10:00 to 16:00 Station Omotesando (Ginza, Chiyoda, Hanzomon Lines), 5 min walk
Tokyo's best-known farmers market runs every Saturday and Sunday on the plaza in front of the United Nations University, with around 50 stalls of produce, honey, coffee, and baked goods from farms across Japan. An easy, food-truck-fuelled stop between Shibuya and Omotesando.
富岡八幡宮 骨董市
Station Monzen-Nakacho (Tozai Line, Toei Oedo Line), 3 min walk
This Edo-era shrine in old-town Fukagawa hosts an antique market on most Sundays plus flea markets on set dates each month, with dealers in Imari porcelain, old kimono, and vintage toys. The schedule shifts around festivals and markets are cancelled in rain, so check before going.
Guilhem Vellut, CC BY 2.0 東京シティフリーマーケット
Station Oikeibajomae (Tokyo Monorail), 2 min walk
Tokyo's biggest regular flea market takes over the Oi Racecourse parking area most Saturdays and Sundays, with 300 to 600 stalls of secondhand clothes, household goods, toys, and the occasional genuine antique. Pure local bargain-hunting rather than a curated antiques fair.
ヒルズマルシェ
Time 10:00 to 14:00 Station Roppongi-itchome (Namboku Line), 3 min walk
One of Tokyo's longest-running weekly marches, held every Saturday morning at Ark Hills since 2009 with farmers and small producers selling vegetables, bread, and prepared food. A relaxed local scene ten minutes from Roppongi.
赤坂アンティークマーケット
Time 11:00 to 17:00 Station Roppongi-itchome (Namboku Line), 3 min walk
Around 70 vendors of antiques, vintage jewellery, art, and old kimono fill the plaza at Ark Hills on the fourth Sunday of each month, moving to the second Sunday in December. More polished and design-minded than the shrine markets, with food stalls alongside.
平和島骨董まつり
Station Ryutsu Center (Tokyo Monorail), 1 min walk
Japan's biggest indoor antiques fair, held about five times a year over three days with nearly 300 dealers from across the country under one roof. Because it is indoors it runs rain or shine, making it the safest bet of Tokyo's big antique events.
16 events are listed for September 2027: 7 exhibitions, 6 festivals, 1 performance, 1 anime and games event and 1 food event. 10 have confirmed dates and 6 are annual events whose exact 2027 dates are still to be announced, shown with their usual window. Every listing links to the interactive map.
Humidity eases through the month and typhoon risk peaks. The September sumo tournament runs at Ryogoku, and neighbourhood autumn festivals start in the last two weeks.
Near-term events are refreshed every week as organisers announce dates, and finished events drop off automatically. Annual events further out carry their typical dates until the official ones are published.