{"id":2498,"date":"2017-05-30T13:29:07","date_gmt":"2017-05-30T04:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/sanno-matsuri\/"},"modified":"2025-08-28T11:35:18","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T02:35:18","slug":"sanno-matsuri","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/ja\/sanno-matsuri\/","title":{"rendered":"Sanno Matsuri, One of Tokyo’s Three Most Important Festivals"},"content":{"rendered":"

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When it comes to festivals (matsuri), nothing can quite beat Japan in the summer. Pretty much every town and city will have one, and Tokyo, being the cultural (and pretty much geographical) epicenter of the country, has more than its fair share.<\/p>\n

One of the capital’s three most important matsuri – along with the Kanda Matsuri<\/a> and Fukagawa Matsuri – is the Sanno Festival that takes place in June and is held in Chiyoda’s Hie Shrine.<\/p>\n

History of\u00a0the Sanno Matsuri<\/h2>\n

The Sanno Festival has auspicious beginnings going back to\u00a0the early years of the Edo period, when Tokugawa Iemitsu (1604-1651), the third shogun of the Tokugawa dynasty and grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu, worshipped at the festival (which at the time was known as Tenka Festival). Under the patronage\u00a0of Iemitsu, the Sanno Matsuri became\u00a0one of only three festivals that were allowed to enter Edo Castle (now part of the\u00a0Tokyo Imperial Palace).<\/p>\n

The Sanno Festival, with its close ties to the Tokugawa shogunate, quickly became one of the more popular\u00a0festivals of Edo. However, with the collapse\u00a0of the bakufu following the Meiji Restoration, and then the declassification of shrines coming with\u00a0the US occupation, it has since declined in its pomp and ceremony. In spite of this\u00a0it remains\u00a0one of the three great Shinto festivals of Japan, and its draw has more to do with tradition than its size as\u00a0it continues to be\u00a0of great importance and an interesting glimpse into\u00a0Japanese cultural history.<\/p>\n

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Depiction of the festival from Yoshitoshi’s ‘Hundred Aspects of the Moon’.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

About Sanno Matsuri<\/h2>\n

The Sanno Matsuri takes place every year in mid-June, however its full pageantry and splendor is only seen on even years. The reason for this\u00a0is said to have been a bakufu decree\u00a0aimed at\u00a0tempering the arguments and occasional violence that arose between the festival’s organizers and those\u00a0in charge of the rival Kanda Matsuri\u00a0(with the latter thus celebrating\u00a0on odd years).<\/p>\n

The festival takes place over eleven days with various activities on\u00a0each day, however the main event on the even years is the parade that usually takes place on the Saturday. Here, around\u00a0300 people form a procession\u00a0some 600m long dressed in traditional costume with musicians, portable ‘mikoshi’ shrines, dashi floats, and riders\u00a0on horseback, all setting off from\u00a0Hie Shrine at 8:00 in the morning. The parade gradually winds its way around the area, passing by the Yotsuya train station and Yasukuni Shrine<\/a>. Before noon the the ensemble\u00a0arrives at the Imperial Palace\u00a0where it stops for about half an hour while the mikoshi are involved in religious ceremonies. The chief priest enters the palace to offer prayers to the\u00a0imperial family, which is a rare honor afforded to the festival. From there the parade continues and returns to Hie\u00a0shrine before\u00a017:00.<\/p>\n

Sanno Matsuri 2017<\/h2>\n
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The reed ring through which your sins can be expunged.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This year’s edition will unfortunately not feature the magnificent\u00a0mikoshi, but is still packed with a whole raft\u00a0of other events, including\u00a0the\u00a0<\/em>chigo-gyoretsu\u00a0<\/em>(June 11, 13:00\u00a0and 14:00), a parade with\u00a0children in ornamental dress wishing for growth and health. Another religious rite is\u00a0chinowa-kuguri, a\u00a0purification ritual\u00a0that sees participants passing through a reed ring as they pray to have their sins purified .<\/p>\n

The program also includes classical performing arts such as dance, an orchestra, and the Sanno-taiko drums. There are also displays of ‘ikebana’ Japanese flower arrangements, as well as\u00a0special tables set up in the shrine gardens so that you can enjoy a cup of\u00a0Japanese tea.<\/p>\n