Every year in February a Shunie Buddhist mass is held at the famous Toudai Temple in Nara. Also known as O-mizu Tori (the water-drawing ceremony), it involves giant bamboo torches being carried along the second floor balcony of the Nigatsu Hall. The madake bamboo used for the kago-taimatsu (basket bamboo torches) come from Kyotanabe City. Early on the 11th of February each year, seven poles of madake bamboo approximately 20cm around, weighing around 100 kilograms are paraded from Kyotanabe to Toudai Temple. After a Buddhist ceremony at Kannon Temple praying for safe travel, the bamboo is driven to Kurokami Mountain in Nara. There some is placed on daihachiguruma (traditional two-wheeled wagons) while the rest is carried by volunteers for the last 4km up to the Nigatsu Hall at Toudai Temple.

This event organised by the Tourism Association gives you the chance to enjoy the best tourist spots of Kyotanabe while the cherry and rape blossom are in full bloom. The walk starts at the Tourist Information (to the East of the JR Kyotanabe station), goes through Ikkyuu Temple, up Kannnabi Mountain, through the Doshisha University campus, and ends at Kannon Temple. At Kannon Temple, there is Kyotanabe's only national treasure, the statue of an 11-faced Kannon bodhisattva. Participants try gyokuro tea and take-no-ko nabe (bamboo shoot soup), and enjoy an open-air tea ceremony as well as picking rape blossom to take home and eat. The market at Fugenji Fureai-no-eki also has various stalls open. This walk is particularly good because one can enter Ikkyuu Temple and Kannon Temple for free.

This traditional event prays for good health and has been passed down in the Miyanokuchi district. It is carried out at Hakusan Shrine where the Shinto god of the district is enshrined. Every year on the 31st of July, eight shrine parishioners become "Kannushi-gumi" priests and make a 1.6m diameter ring out of bundled bamboo and bamboo grass as an offering. In other areas this ring is placed at the entrance to a shrine, but here in Miyanokuchi it is placed on the side of the road at the north-eastern corner of the district. Worshipers pass through the ring from the North side three times while holding a gohei (staff with streamers used in Shinto ceremonies), thereby protecting themselves from disease and calamity.

The 17th Night festival at Ohmido Kannon Temple ceased to be celebrated before World War II, but was reinstated in 2008. People of all generations gather to celebrate this festival and pray for the prosperity of the area. The whole temple takes on a solemn atmosphere as the main hall is lit up and the path is decorated with a multitude of Buddhist festival lanterns.

Shuuon'an, otherwise known as Ikkyuu Temple, has long-standing ties with Noh theatre. The third generation of the Kanze style of Noh are buried in the temple cemetery, and in front of the main gate lies the place where the Noh player and playwright Konparu Zenchiku, son-in-law of Zeami (one of the founders of Noh) performed for the monk Ikkyuu Oshou. The name of this type of Noh also comes from the name of the temple's neighbourhood, Takigi. Every year in mid autumn around the time of the full moon, Takigi Noh is performed to a small drum and flute by firelight, and Ikkyuu Temple is transformed into a mysterious and beautiful world.

"Tea Day" falls on the 1st of October every year, so this event is held along the path to Ikkyuu Temple on the first Sunday of October. It promotes the high quality tea produced in Kyotanabe through a free gyokuro taster session, a show of kneading tea-leaves by the Kyotanabe Tea Hand-Kneading Preservation Association, and a class on how to make delious tea by the Kyotanabe Tea Industry Youth Group. The sweet scent of gyokuro fills the air, clearing one's heart and mind.

This ancient folk dance, made as an offering at Tsukiyomi Shrine and Amatsu Shrine on the evening of the 14th of October, was first performed approximately 1300 years ago by the Oosumi Hayato people from present-day Kagoshima in service to the imperial court. Along with the Iwato-kagura dance it is considered one of the original Japanese folk arts. The stage is hung with a thick thatch rope and decorated with a bamboo pole that has bamboo grass pointing towards the four compass points. In front of the stage, flags in five colours hang down and a red hood is placed on a giant piece of bamboo. Rice, salt and vegetables are displayed as offerings to the gods. Now the Hayato dancers are local junior high school students. They dress in traditional clothes, carry fans, bells, and a sword or shield, and dance in time to a taiko drum and flute.

Once every two years in October, the Zuiki mikoshi (portable shrine) is paraded during the autumn festival at Tanakurahiko Shrine. The story of the origin of this festival is as follows: Long ago, when the lord of Yodo castle crossed the Ooi River on his way to Edo (present-day Tokyo), he escaped disaster thanks to a warning from the god of Tanakurahiko Shrine. Out of gratitude he donated a stone torii gate to the shrine. The villagers were so delighted with his gift that they built and worshiped a Zuiki mikoshi. The mikoshi is 3m tall and is supported by four 1.5m long beams of Japanese cypress. It is decorated with red zuiki (a root vegetable) on the roof, green zuiki on the torii gate, soy beans, kidney beans, brown rice, and azuki beans on the walls, and the phoenix ontop is made of pumpkin and amaranth blossoms. Over 30 kinds of vegetables, grain, and dried food such as red and green chili peppers, tomatoes, dried cayenne peppers and chrysanthemum, are used to decorate the mikoshi and pray for a bountiful harvest.The decoration itself is carried out from the end of September, and once completed, the striking mikoshi weighs about one ton.

This traditional event is held every year in October at the Yamamoto Otabisho (rest spot) in Saga Shrine. On the eve of the festival, a priest, a Noh performer and a middle-aged man purify themselves with boiling water, and the chief priest performs a ceremony transferring the gods from the shrine to the mikoshi (portable shrines). On the morning of the festival, after a Shinto ritual has been held in the main hall of the Saga Shrine, the two mikoshi are paraded through the Yamamoto and Etsu districts to the sound of taiko drums. After the mikoshi arrive at the Yamamoto Otabisho in Miyamaki about 2 kilometers away, over 100 varieties of grain, beans and fruit are presented before the gods as an offering. The "Yu-date" is held in front of the Otabisho at around 7pm. Sacred water is boiled in an iron-pot over a fire of sacred wood, before a priest adds sacred sake, salt, and rice. Once a Shinto priest has offered up this sacred solution before the gods, shrine maidens dance with swords to a bell and taiko drums. The boiled water is then scooped out of the iron pot with bamboo leaves and scattered over the people gathered to pray for their good health.

This big event involves a walk around the famous places and historic sites of Kyotanabe, a city blessed with bountiful nature. There are three different routes varying in length: a beginners (shoshinsha) course, a standard (ippan) course, and a course for good walkers (kenkyaku). The number of participants is increasing year on year. This walk has become a particularly popular event because it is held in autumn when there are many beautiful sights to see. Anyone can take part for just 150 yen if you reserve beforehand, or 300 yen on the day.