Daikoku Matsuri 2026 at Tōka Ebisu Shrine

A New Autumn Festival at a Historic Shrine

The second Daikoku Matsuri took place from October 2 to 4, 2026, around Tōka Ebisu Shrine and Higashi Park in Fukuoka’s Hakata ward. The festival began last year. This year it expanded to three days, bringing music, art and local residents into an event rooted in shrine tradition.

Tōka Ebisu is known as a shrine where people pray for business prosperity and good fortune. The festival made room for local cultural activities alongside traditional rites. Japanese drumming, a samurai troupe and dances by Hakata geisha shared the program with contemporary popular music. The shrine drew on its existing traditions and made space for younger participants and local artists.

At 4 p.m. on October 4, the last day of the festival, singer-songwriter Miyu Kanou gave a dedication performance on the lawn at Higashi Park. She grew up and began making music in Fukuoka before taking her work to Tokyo and Korea. Joining a new festival back home gave this performance a context different from a regular commercial show.

Opening With ‘OVER DRIVE’ and Moving Between Japanese Pop and Her Own Songs

Kanou opened with JUDY AND MARY’s ‘OVER DRIVE.’ Its bright guitars and quick rhythm were a good fit for an outdoor festival. The song had also been important in introducing her to Japanese audiences, so the opening came with a link to her own history as a performer.

She followed it with Minako Honda’s ‘Oneway Generation’ and her own songs ‘DO IT NOW’ and ‘TERMINAL.’ The set brought the energy of 1980s Japanese pop together with music she is making now. Familiar songs helped her meet the audience where they were, and her original material showed what she is doing as a singer-songwriter.

‘DO IT NOW’ and ‘TERMINAL’ show Kanou building a repertoire of her own. At a local festival, familiar songs can reach listeners across generations and tastes. For a performer working under her own name, it also matters that people leave knowing some of the songs she has written.

TOM★CAT’s ‘ふられ気分で Rock’n’Roll’ brought the set back to the energy of 1980s Japanese rock. Alongside Minako Honda’s ‘Oneway Generation,’ it represented a familiar era of Japanese popular music. What made the sequence distinctive was hearing Kanou’s own work between those songs.

Miyu Kanou’s Setlist

1. ‘OVER DRIVE’ — JUDY AND MARY
2. ‘Oneway Generation’ — Minako Honda (本田美奈子)
3. ‘DO IT NOW’ — Miyu Kanou
4. ‘TERMINAL’ — Miyu Kanou
5. ‘ふられ気分で Rock’n’Roll’ — TOM★CAT
6. ‘Renbo’ (恋慕) — Japanese-language remake of Lee Ki-chan’s ‘감기’
7. ‘Haikei, Shōnen yo’ (拝啓、少年よ) — originally by Hump Back, performed with local students

From Lee Ki-chan’s ‘감기’ to ‘Renbo’

The sixth song was ‘Renbo,’ released on September 5, 2026. It is a Japanese-language remake of ‘감기’ by Korean singer Lee Ki-chan. Japanese lyricist Neko Oikawa wrote new words for the original melody, and Lee is credited for the composition and arrangement. The song retains the emotional character of the original while giving it a new shape in Japanese.

‘Renbo’ brought the experience Kanou had gained in Korea into her own release catalog. A Japanese singer performing a Korean song in Korean is a familiar sight at cultural exchange events. Releasing an existing Korean song in Japanese takes a different kind of work. Someone has to choose the song, write new lyrics and introduce the result to the Japanese market as a release in its own right.

There is a history of Japanese and Korean popular music adapting and reinterpreting songs from each other. A song released in one language finds a different singer and new lyrics, and becomes part of another repertoire. Today, online platforms and audiences that follow artists across borders make it easier to hear the original and the remake side by side.

Hearing ‘Renbo’ at a local festival in Fukuoka made that route concrete. A Korean artist’s song was made anew in Japanese, released by a Japanese performer who works in both countries, and then sung at a neighborhood festival in Japan. Kanou had made a lasting addition to her repertoire.

‘OVER DRIVE,’ ‘Oneway Generation’ and ‘ふられ気分で Rock’n’Roll’ drew on familiar Japanese pop and rock. ‘DO IT NOW’ and ‘TERMINAL’ represented Kanou’s own work. ‘Renbo’ showed where working in Japan and Korea had led in the studio. Music from different periods and languages met in one set.

Closing With ‘Haikei, Shōnen yo’ and Local Students

The last song was the clearest expression of what this particular performance could do. Kanou sang Hump Back’s ‘Haikei, Shōnen yo’ with local students. The first six songs had traced parts of her own repertoire. For the last one she shared the stage with young musicians from the area.

Released in 2018, ‘Haikei, Shōnen yo’ is about the uncertainty and challenges of being young and trying to follow a dream. It sings about persisting through frustration and setbacks. That made it a fitting choice for students learning music and just beginning to perform in public.

Kanou started making music in Fukuoka, then took her work to Tokyo and Korea. Coming back to sing with students beginning their own musical lives gave the collaboration particular weight. They shared the work of making the song on stage.

The choice to close with ‘Haikei, Shōnen yo’ followed the set’s arc. Kanou opened with the energy of ‘OVER DRIVE,’ introduced her own music and a new song based on Korean pop, and ended with a song that encourages young people to keep going. The focus moved from the route she had taken to the generation coming after her.

One collaboration is too little to measure an effect on music education in the area. It did give students a chance to perform with someone who grew up nearby and now makes music for a living. The shrine’s autumn festival gave those two generations a place to meet.

The program also made time for local high school students to ask Kanou questions directly. They could hear from a working musician who grew up in Fukuoka and later took her work to Tokyo and Korea. Including the closing collaboration, the program let them listen, ask questions and finally sing with her.

The Audiences a Local Festival Brings Together

Kanou’s recent work has taken her between small live venues, large festivals, street performances and local events. All put her in front of an audience, but the people in those audiences come with quite different expectations.

At a live house, she can spend time with people who already know her music. On a large shared bill, she can introduce herself to another act’s fans. At a local festival, she also meets neighbors, visitors and families who came for the whole event. A traditional shrine can bring contemporary pop to people who rarely go to a live music venue.

A wide repertoire helps in that setting. Older listeners can recognize Japanese pop they grew up with. Original songs show what Kanou is making now, and a new release based on a Korean song shows the work she does across both countries. Her set in Fukuoka made room for all three.

The organizers also announced merchandise sales after the performance. The lineup included guitar-pick key rings, randomly selected instant photographs and the photo book ‘Akiramenaide’ (あきらめないで). Photo-book buyers were given details of an on-site signing. For someone who first encountered Kanou at the free festival, there was a chance to take something of her work home.

Putting merchandise alongside a free concert gives a performer another way to reach people without charging them to come in. That can matter at a festival where seeing the concert was only one of several reasons to visit.

Music That Began in Fukuoka Returns to Meet Its Next Generation

Daikoku Matsuri has taken place only twice. It is still early to say how the combination of shrine rites, local arts, contemporary popular music and youth performance will develop. This year it grew into a three-day festival and gave working musicians and local students a way to take part together.

Kanou’s set made the character of the festival audible. A performer raised in Fukuoka sang familiar Japanese pop and her own work, introduced a Japanese adaptation of a Korean song and closed with local students on a song about growing up. Music that had left Fukuoka for other cities and another country came back to meet younger musicians at home.

The show told the story of Kanou’s work between Japan and Korea through music. ‘DO IT NOW’ and ‘TERMINAL’ belong to the repertoire she has been building. ‘Renbo’ brought a Korean song into that repertoire in Japanese. Sharing ‘Haikei, Shōnen yo’ with local students turned attention to the musicians just starting out.

Miyu Kanou began making music in Fukuoka and returned to sing there. Her set carried memories of Japanese pop, the music she is making now and her connection with Korea. By the last song, there were students on stage beginning paths of their own.

At Tōka Ebisu Shrine’s autumn festival on October 4, 2026, the places Kanou’s music had taken her and some of the people who might carry it forward came together on one stage.