The Sanja Matsuri in Asakusa, Tokyo, is one of Japan’s most raucous traditional events.
The Sanja Matsuri in Asakusa, Tokyo, is one of Japan’s most raucous traditional events. A Shinto festival with its origins in the early 7th Century, it lasts three days, and attracts an estimated 1.5 – 2 million guests each year, this year culminating on Sunday May 18 in glorious sunshine.
Local residents dress in traditional yukata and festival-wear, with the event centered around 3 portable shrines known as “mikoshi.”
The festival ends with a hand-clapping ceremony at the shrine in Asakusa, known as Senso-ji, where the elaborately-decorated portable shrines are carried off before sunrise, at around 6 a.m.
The Sanja Festival (“three shrine festival”) is one of the three great Shinto festivals, along with the Sanno Festival at Hie Shrine, and the biannual Kanda Matsuri.
According to legend, two fisherman brothers, Hinokuma Hamanari and Hinokuma Takenari, discovered a statue of the Buddhist Bodhisattva Kannon statue caught in their net in 628, and were convinced by wealthy landlord Hajino Nakatomo to convert to Buddhism, establishing the Senso-ji Shrine.
Asakusa is one of Tokyo's top tourist attractions, and oldest districts, with a narrow shopping street leading to Senso-ji and its famous pagoda.
The festival is one of celebration, in which the usually quiet locals are able to cheer on the streets, chant, play instruments and bang taiko drums, as the shrines are carried around the neighborhood.
Each mikoshi costs around 40 million yen (around US$400,000) to make, and is covered in real gold leaf. They weight around 20 tons, requiring 40 people to hold them.
Around 100 smaller mikoshi are also made for women and children to carry around Asakusa on Saturday, the middle day of the festival.