Kanda Matsuri

Overview

Kanda Matsuri is the grand festival of Kanda Shrine, popularly known as Kanda Myojin, located in Sotokanda, Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo. Together with the Gion Festival of Kyoto and the Tenjin Festival of Osaka, it is sometimes counted among the three great festivals of Japan, and it stands as one of the foremost festivals representing the city of Edo. Because the Tokugawa shoguns welcomed its portable shrines and festival floats into Edo Castle for viewing, it came to be known as a "Tenka Matsuri," or shogunal festival, and it conveys to this day the spirit of the people of old Edo.

While the shrine rites of the annual festival are conducted in mid-May every year, the grand procession known as the Shinko-sai, which features the parade of portable shrines, is held only in alternate years, taking turns with the Sanno Festival, another of Edo's great festivals. The shrine's parish spreads across more than a hundred neighborhoods in central Tokyo, including Kanda, Nihonbashi, Akihabara, Otemachi, and Marunouchi, and in the years of the main festival, hundreds of neighborhood portable shrines are said to parade through the heart of the capital.

History and Origins

Kanda Shrine, according to its own tradition, was founded in the year 730 and possesses a history of some thirteen hundred years as the general guardian shrine of Edo. Among its enshrined deities are Onamuchi-no-Mikoto, Sukunahikona-no-Mikoto, and the spirit of Taira no Masakado. Masakado was a warrior of the mid-Heian period who built an independent power base in the Kanto region and rose against the imperial court, and the shrine that pacifies and venerates his spirit has long drawn deep devotion from the people of Edo.

During the Edo period, the Tokugawa shogunate generously protected Kanda Myojin as the shrine guarding the northeastern, or demon, gate of Edo Castle. The festival is said to have flourished as a shogunate-sanctioned rite, connected to the tradition that Tokugawa Ieyasu prayed for victory here before the Battle of Sekigahara and won. The prestige of the Tenka Matsuri, in which the festival procession was welcomed into the castle grounds for the shogun's viewing, was special even among the many festivals of Edo.

The festival's chief glory was once its splendid procession of floats. The rites remained vigorous into the Meiji era, with forty-six floats paraded in 1884 and forty in 1887, rivaling the grandeur of the Edo period. However, from the late Meiji period onward, the spread of electrical wires through the city made it difficult to parade tall floats, and the centerpiece of the festival gradually shifted from floats to the procession of portable shrines. Today the neighborhood shrines of the parish form the heart of the festival, and their parade through central Tokyo, accompanied by the spirited cries of the bearers, has become its symbol.

Highlights

The Shinko-sai Procession

The centerpiece of the main festival is the Shinko-sai. The divine spirit is transferred to phoenix palanquins and portable shrines, and a great procession in Heian-period costume spends an entire day parading through the more than one hundred parish neighborhoods of Kanda, Nihonbashi, Otemachi, and Marunouchi. The sight of a procession stretching hundreds of meters advancing through the heart of Tokyo, where modern office towers and the atmosphere of old Edo intersect, is a spectacle unique to Kanda Matsuri.

The Mikoshi Miyairi

On the day after the Shinko-sai, the neighborhood portable shrines of each parish district make their way one after another to Kanda Myojin in the Mikoshi Miyairi. Hundreds of portable shrines head into the precincts throughout the day, and the spirited cries and fervor of the bearers fill the grounds. With the stylish Edo-style manner of carrying the shrines and the great crowds of worshippers looking on, the festival reaches its climax.

The Tsukematsuri

The Tsukematsuri, which follows the Shinko-sai procession, is another highlight. This is a procession of inventive performances incorporating the customs and fashions of each era, including enormous decorative floats and parades of costumed participants. Carrying on the playful spirit of the common people of Edo, this lively spectacle adds a festive brightness that contrasts with the solemnity of the sacred rites.

Dates and Access

Kanda Matsuri conducts the rites of its annual festival in mid-May every year, while the main festival with the Shinko-sai and Mikoshi Miyairi is held in alternate years with the Sanno Festival, generally in odd-numbered years. The festival unfolds over several days centered on the weekend nearest May 15.

Kanda Shrine, the center of the festival, is about a five-minute walk from Ochanomizu Station on the JR Chuo and Sobu lines, and is also within walking distance of the Tokyo Metro stations of Ochanomizu, Shin-Ochanomizu, and Suehirocho. Because the parish spreads across the central districts of the city, the processions and shrine entries unfold over a wide area including Akihabara, Nihonbashi, and Otemachi. The main festival year draws enormous crowds, so the use of public transport is recommended.

Around the Site

The approach to Kanda Shrine lies close to Akihabara, one of the world's foremost electronics and subculture districts, giving it a distinctive setting where traditional rites stand side by side with contemporary urban culture. Near the shrine are the Yushima Seido Confucian temple, while Nikolai Cathedral, the secondhand bookshop district of Jimbocho, and Yushima Tenjin can all be reached on foot or by train.

The parish districts of Nihonbashi, Otemachi, and Marunouchi have been centers of commerce since the Edo period and remain the heart of the modern Japanese economy, where long-established shops and high-rise towers coexist. A visit timed to the festival lets one experience both the rite of the guardian shrine of old Edo and the central districts that its parish neighborhoods have nurtured.

Related Information

Kanda Matsuri is counted, together with the Sanno Festival and the Fukagawa Festival of Tomioka Hachiman Shrine, among the three great festivals of Edo, and is also sometimes ranked alongside the Gion Festival of Kyoto and the Tenjin Festival of Osaka as one of the three great festivals of Japan. Its relationship with the Sanno Festival is especially deep, as the two stand as twin pillars of the shogunate-sanctioned Tenka Matsuri and hold their main festivals in alternate years.

• Period: mid-May (main festival alternates with the Sanno Festival)
• Prefecture: Tokyo (Kanto)
• Location: Kanda Shrine (Kanda Myojin), Sotokanda, Chiyoda Ward
• Deities: Onamuchi-no-Mikoto, Sukunahikona-no-Mikoto, Taira no Masakado
• Founding: traditionally 730; a history of about 1,300 years
• Status: general guardian shrine of Edo; shogunate-sanctioned Tenka Matsuri; one of the three great festivals of Edo

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