Mifuneyama Rakuen Autumn Leaves Festival Opens Nov 6: Day and Night Tickets in Takeo, Saga

Mifuneyama Rakuen (御船山楽園) in Takeo, Saga Prefecture, is running its Autumn Leaves Festival from Friday, November 6 through Sunday, December 6, 2026. Daytime hours are 8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; the night session (Tamayura evening) runs 5:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Day-or-night adult admission is ¥600. If you are already in Kyushu — or routing through Takeo Onsen — here is what the garden has published for this year's run.

DOJI is an independent travel publication. We have no business relationship with Mifuneyama Rakuen, Mifuneyama Rakuen Hotel, or Onyado Chikurintei, and this guide is not endorsed by them. Dates, hours and prices below come from the garden's official English and Japanese autumn pages, checked on November 6, 2026 (Eastern time). Times are Japan time (JST). Japan is 14 hours ahead of Eastern time in winter. Event details can change, so check the official site again before you go.

The short version

• When: November 6 – December 6, 2026 · day 8:00 a.m.–5:30 p.m. · night 5:30–10:00 p.m. · open daily, including rain.
• Where: Mifuneyama Rakuen, Takeo City, Saga (Takeo Onsen area).
• Price (festival admission): Day or night — adult ¥600 / elementary-school student ¥300. Day and night combo — adult ¥900 / elementary-school student ¥400. The Japanese page defines “adult” as junior-high age and up.
• Hotel guests: Guests staying at Onyado Chikurintei or Mifuneyama Rakuen Hotel enter the garden at no charge (official wording).
• What you see: Daytime maples across a garden the organizers describe as about 50 hectares / 500,000 m², with a 170-year-old maple, Azalea Valley, Furimuki Slope and views across Kagamiike Pond. At night, the venue lights about 13 hectares and describes that illumination as “Japan’s largest autumn leaves illumination” — that is the garden's own claim, not an independent ranking.
• Rules on site: Drone photography is prohibited. Tarps and alcohol are prohibited.

Hours, place and price

Group rates are “please contact us” only — we did not receive a published group price list. Hotel stay packages and room rates are not verified here; we do not quote them.

Daytime and night highlights (as published)

Daytime focuses on overlapping red, orange and yellow foliage with Mt. Mifuneyama (about 210 m) as the backdrop. Named spots on the official page include the 170-year-old maple, Azalea Valley, Furimuki Slope, and pond-side leaf views.

Night (Tamayura evening) lights roughly 13 hectares. Spot labels on the English page include Maple Arch, Furimuki Slope, the 170-year-old maple, Kagamiike Pond and Haginoo Ochaya Tea House. Treat leaf color and brightness as weather-dependent.

During the festival, Haginoo Ochaya is open with a daytime konacha + kushi-dango set and a night konacha + zenzai set. We did not confirm those set prices on the pages we checked.

Getting there (official access)

From the garden's own access block:

• Address: 4100 Takeo, Takeo-cho, Takeo, Saga 843-0022, Japan · phone +81-954-23-3131.
• From Hakata Station: JR Kyushu limited express about 1 hour 10 minutes to Takeo-Onsen Station, then about 5 minutes by taxi.
• By car (published drive times): Fukuoka Airport about 1 hour 10 minutes; Nagasaki Airport about 40 minutes; Saga Airport about 50 minutes.

Parking fees, last-train times back from Takeo-Onsen, and English ticket-purchase flows for overseas cards were not confirmed on the pages we opened.

What we could not confirm

• Week-to-week peak maple color for 2026 (weather-driven).
• Whether an English online ticket purchase exists, or whether overseas cards work at the gate.
• Parking fees and lot rules for day visitors vs hotel guests.
• Tea-house set prices, restaurant menu prices, and any hotel package rates.
• How busy individual evenings will be, or whether same-day tickets sell out early.
• Any later change to hours, prices or the child-age rule.

Checklist

• [ ] Your date falls between November 6 and December 6, 2026.
• [ ] You know whether you need day only, night only, or the day-and-night combo.
• [ ] If you are staying at Onyado Chikurintei or Mifuneyama Rakuen Hotel, you bring whatever proof the gate asks for no-charge entry.
• [ ] You can reach Takeo-Onsen with enough margin before closing (day last entry is not separately listed on the overview — plan to arrive well before 5:30 p.m. for daytime, or before 10:00 p.m. for night).
• [ ] You re-check mifuneyamarakuen.jp/en/autumn/ the day before you go.

Also in Kyushu this season: LUMI Satsuma 2026 in Kagoshima opens November 7.

Planning a Kyushu autumn stop from Canada? Join DOJI.

Sources

• Mifuneyama Rakuen Autumn Leaves Festival (official English): dates, day/night hours, rain-or-shine, admission table, hotel-guest entry, ~13 ha night illumination claim (“Japan’s largest”), daytime ~50 ha / 500,000 m² framing, named spots, drone/tarp/alcohol rules. Checked 2026-11-06.
• 紅葉まつり（公式日本語）: same dates/hours; adult = junior-high and up; elementary prices; 竹林亭・御船山楽園ホテル入園無料; 日本最大級 wording. Checked 2026-11-06.
• Mifuneyama Rakuen home (official English): address, phone, Hakata / airport access times. Checked 2026-11-06.

Cover photo: a stone path through autumn maples toward a traditional Japanese house in Nagoya (not Mifuneyama Rakuen's 2026 festival or night light-up). Photo by chansu shin via Unsplash.