We’d
never been to a festival so huge – over one and a half million people attend
over the three days. Of course we were
nervous. Together with Miho, our
Japanese “daughter-in-law” and Kanato, our four-year old “grandson” in a
stroller, we were swept out of the subway station by a happy crowd into Tokyo’s
Asakusa neighborhood. The streets were
closed to traffic and instead were packed wall-to-wall with people, from locals
of all ages to tourists from around the globe.
In just a few minutes we were caught up in the enthusiastic celebration
and all fears disappeared.
We
made our way through the crowd and before too long, we heard taiko drumming and enjoyed a very
skillful children’s group perform. Thanks
to an adult member of the group who knew English, I had a chance to talk with
their 80 year-old teacher. Suddenly we
heard flutes, whistles and chanting. There
bouncing above the crowd was a sparkling gold sculpture of a phoenix, its wings
over 4 feet wide. As we got closer we
could see the mikoshi it adorned, an
elaborate portable shrine carried on the shoulders of over 40 singing and
chanting men.
We
were there on Sunday, the last day of the festival, and the highlight is the
parade of elaborate mikoshi. They “swim” through the crowds, about every
twenty minutes, on their way to Senso-ji Temple. There are three large mikoshi plus one hundred others
from the neighborhood associations. Parading
the mikoshi honors
the local kami (gods) and bestows
good luck upon their respective neighborhoods. Most of the one-ton mikoshi are carried by
men, but there are now women’s associations with their own mikoshi. Miniature versions
are carried by children – and mobbed by photographers.
Miho
took us back to one of the side streets.
There a mikoshi stood on
sawhorses while the men rested, ate and enjoyed sake with their families. They proudly showed off their treasure
(estimated to cost $390,760 in 2008) and suggested
that we take a photo with them. It’s one
of our favorites from the festival.
Back out on the main street, I waded into the crowd to take
photos and capture the energy of the people carrying the mikoshi. As long as I kept
pace with the celebrants, I was fine. But
it was tough to keep other photographers out of my pictures. Later we
enjoyed some of our favorite festival foods before returning to our hotel exhilarated
but exhausted.
Sanja
Matsuri (literally “Three Shrine Festival”) is one of the three great Shinto
religious festivals in Tokyo. It honors
three men who founded Senso-ji Temple and is held on the third weekend of every
May. The festival dates back to the 7th
century but reached its present high status in 1649 when Shogun Tokugawa
Iemitsu commissioned the construction of Asakusa Shinto shrine dedicated to the
three founders.
