This Festival Parade Is Like Nothing You’ve Seen: Sanja Matsuri Japan
We stumbled across Tokyo’s largest shrine festival, Sanja Matsuri. Sanja Matsuri is a Japanese Shinto festival held annually at Asakusa Shrine in Tokyo. The festival takes place on the 3rd weekend of May every year and lasts for 3 days, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Sanja Matsuri, which translates to three shrine festival, is an event held in honor of the three men who founded the Senoji Buddhist temple. Approximately 2 million people attend the festival each year, which attracts both locals and tourists. People come to honor ancient religious and cultural traditions while expressing pure joy and freedom. This vibrant atmosphere makes Sanja Matsuri one of Tokyo’s most famous and lively festivals. Common features at the event include the procession of portable shrines called Makoshi. A makoshi is a sacred vessel believed to temporarily house a Shinto deity or kami. During the festival, these ornate miniature shrines are paraded through the streets to bring good, fortune, and blessings to the local community and its businesses. The atmosphere is electric. Bears organized by their local neighborhoods heave the heavy shrines onto their shoulders. They don’t just carry them, they shake and rock them violently. This powerful motion is called tamuri and is believed to invigorate the deity inside amplifying the festival’s energy and blessings. To involve the younger generation, there are also small lightweight makoshi that children can carry, instilling a sense of community pride from a young age. Straight. The Sanja Matsuri is more than a spectacle. It’s a living tradition that connects the past with the present. A wild and spirited celebration where the sacred and the celebratory meet in a riot of sound and energy right in the heart of modern Tokyo. [Music] In many cases, women participate alongside men in carrying the larger mikoshi. [Music] [Music] Carrying a makoshi is not just a physical act. It’s a deeply meaningful and often competitive community tradition. At the Sanja Matsuri, the right to carry a Makoshi is primarily tied to one’s affiliation with the local neighborhoods of Asakuza. The people who carry the Makoshi are typically members of a neighborhood association known as a Nujiko. These associations are composed of residents and local business owners who belong to the parish of a specific shrine. For the Sanja Matsuri, this means belonging to one of the 44 districts of Asukuza. The neighborhood Makoshi on Saturday and the three main Asakuza shrine Makoshi on Sunday are carried by these groups. Mikoshi are incredibly heavy with the three main shrines of Asakuza Shrine weighing around 1 ton each. It requires dozens of people working in unison to lift and carry them. Participants must wear the traditional festival attire which includes a happy or Hampton coat, a headband, hatchimaki, and two-toed socks and boots. These uniforms often bear the crest of their specific neighborhood association, visually uniting the team. [Music] The task is so physically demanding that bearers constantly rotate, stepping in and out to share the burden. The jostling and pushing seen during the processions are often a result of teams vying for a position to carry the shrine. [Music] Over [Music] a hundred Mikoshi participate from neighborhood shrines to the three massive main shrines of Asakuza shrine itself. The processions are a powerful display of teamwork and local pride with generations coming together to carry on this centuries old tradition. [Music] It’s not impossible for a foreigner to carry a mikoshi, but it’s not a casual activity. It’s often a rare privilege that requires a connection to the local community. A foreign resident who is a regular part of a neighborhood association might be invited to join. Tourists are almost never allowed to jump in and participate due to the weight, potential for injury, and the pre-organized nature of the groups. Hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey [Music] go hey go hey go hey go hey go hey go hey go hey go hey go hey go hey hey go hey hey go hey hey move that hey [Music] go hey [Music] go hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey Yeah. [Music] [Music] seem to be showing respect. and blessings and putting money into this pit bin. A fun and traditional activity is to pay 100 yen for a fortune paper known as an omuji. This is a small ritual that offers a glimpse into your future and a chance to engage with the cent’s old custom. Place a 100 yen coin into the collection box. The system operates on an honor basis. You will find a metal cylindrical box with a small hole at the bottom. Shake the box until a single wooden stick called a Makuji bow falls out. The stick will have a number written on it. Now match it to the numbers on the drawers in front of you. Find the drawer with the corresponding number and open it. Inside you’ll find a pile of rolled or folded paper slips. Take one. The omikuji paper will have your fortune written on it. If you receive a good fortune, you should keep it with you. Many people fold it and place it in their wallet or pocket to carry the good luck with them. If you receive a bad fortune, it’s customary to leave it behind. You’ll see designated metal racks or ropes near the omiuji stand where you can tie your paper. The act of tying it to the rack symbolizes leaving the bad luck behind at the temple grounds, preventing it from following you home. The bustling shopping street that leads to Sensogi Temple is called Naka Mystery and it is an essential part of the Asakuza experience. Stretching for about 250 m from the massive Camaran Thundergate to the Hosamon treasure gate, Nakamori is one of Japan’s oldest shopping streets with roots dating back to the 17th century. I’m getting used to that. I hate you. How are you? Thank you. Some noodles. Nice [Music] little mini octopus. I think it’s condensed milk. I think it’s condensed milk. Oh, it’s condensed milk. Condensed milk in a bottle. Okay, that’s what I’m used to doing in a can. Shall we go have a look down? Let’s go check out down there, guys. All right.
We visit the heart of Tokyo’s Asakusa district and experience the Sanja Matsuri by chance! Experience the raw energy and tradition as hundreds of elaborately decorated portable shrines, known as mikoshi, are paraded through the streets. The rhythmic chants, the powerful jostling of the bearers, and the vibrant atmosphere of one of Japan’s most famous and exhilarating festivals is a unique experience.
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