page_title: Sanja Matsuri
section_title: Day by day
hierarchical_section_title: Sanja Matsuri / Description of events / Day by day
caption_attribution_description: People paraded through the Nakamise during Sanja Matsuri.
context_page_description: Sanja Matsuri, or Sanja Festival, is one of the three great Shinto festivals in Tokyo. It is considered one of the wildest and largest. The festival is held in honor of Hinokuma Hamanari, Hinokuma Takenari, and Hajino Nakatomo, the three men who established and founded the Sensō-ji Buddhist temple. Sanja Matsuri is held on the third weekend of every May at Asakusa Shrine. Its prominent parades revolve around three mikoshi, as well as traditional music and dancing. Over the course of three days, the festival attracts 1.5 to 2 million locals and tourists every year.
context_section_description: Though not a part of the festivities, the official start of the Sanja Matsuri begins on Thursday with an important religious ceremony. This ceremony requires Asakusa Shrine's head priest to perform a ritual that moves the enshrined kami of the three men at Asakusa Shrine to the three mikoshi that will be paraded around the Asakusa during the weekend. By opening the small doors located on each mikoshi (the interior is obscured to the public by a small cotton curtain), the three spirits are invited into the miniature shrines where they will reside for the duration of the festival.
  The festival's more publicized beginning starts on Friday when the Daigyōretsu (大行列, literally "large parade") is held. This famous 19-block grand procession down Yanagi Street and Nakamise-dōri to Asakusa Shrine is an event that is used to energize the community. It is most known for its participants' lavish costumes, such as heron-hooded dancers, geisha and city officials wearing hakama (traditional Japanese clothing). Musicians, performers and dancers also parade down the streets of Asakusa in traditional Japanese attire during the procession. In the evening, six mikoshi from the most central neighborhoods are sent parading through the streets on the shoulders of several dozen people.
  On the following day, Saturday, approximately 100 mikoshi from the 44 Asakusa districts gather at the Kaminarimon. They are then paraded through Nakamise-dōri and stop at the Hōzōmon where they pay their respects to Kannon, the Goddess of Mercy. Afterwards, the mikoshi are carried to Asakusa Shrine where Shinto priests bless and purify them for the coming year. When the ceremony is completed, they are then carried back and paraded through their respective neighborhoods.
  Sanja Matsuri's most important events occurs on the following Sunday. The procession of the three Asakusa Shrine-owned mikoshi begin their march down Nakamise-dōri toward the Kaminarimon early Sunday morning. These three elaborate shrines honor and represent the three men responsible for founding the Sensō-ji. During this final day of the festival, these important mikoshi are split up in order to visit and bestow blessing to all 44 districts of downtown and residential Asakusa. When evening falls, the three shrines find their way back to Asakusa Shrine in another grand procession that lasts late into the night.
caption: People paraded through the Nakamise during Sanja Matsuri.
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