Spring Festival is held in Murata Town in Miyagi Prefecture on the second Sunday in May every year. Murata Town had been prosperous as a traveling-through point on the road connecting Sendai and Yamagata in the old days as well as a castle town at the foot of Murata Castle constructed by Oyama Naritomo, a powerful retainer of the Date clan.

The townscape with old merchants’ houses and storehouses with white walls built during the Edo period (1603-1868) still remains and tells of the prosperity enjoyed by the town to visitors. Murata Town is a Sho-Kyoto (small Kyoto) in Miyagi Prefecture. The town has many historic sites and wonderful natural features such as Shiratori Shrine with a 1,000-year-old tree and Ryutoin Garden pertaining to the Date clan.

On the festival day, a lot of small-scaled events are held everywhere in the town. The main feature is the mikoshi (portable shrine) parade by children. The children from every sub-town boastfully carry their own unique mikoshi and powerfully parade through the central part of the town for two hours. Vigor and smiles of children never changes even hundreds of years have passed in this historic town.