Kanda Matsuri

Kanda Matsuri

Kanda Matsuri, also known as the Kanda Matsuri festival of Tokyo, ranks among
Tokyo's traditional   -  Three Grand Festivals  -  , and is a four-day celebration in honor of the Kanda Myojin Shrine's kami (deities).

The festival originally started as a celebration of the decisive victory of Tokugawa Ieyasu at the battle of Sekigahara, which resulted in the establishment of government power in Tokyo, then called Edo. The festival still continues as a jubilation of that victory along with being an occasion to relish and display the prosperity of the Tokugawa shogunate during the Edo period.

What adds even more fervor and enthusiasm to Kanda Matsuri, a major festival of the downtown Shitamachi area of the city, is the earnestness of the Kanda residents to outshine the Hie Shrine's Sanno Festival (held in June), celebrated by their rival aristocratic   -  high city  -   neighbors. The sublime competition between the two shrine festivals results in an elaborate procession of traditional floats, bedecked golden mikoshi (portable shrines) and traditional dancers.

Mikoshis are ornate gold and black lacquer vehicles of the shrine's kami or deity, taken out on a procession through the streets of the town, so that he can bestow his blessings in the form of luck and prosperity for the area and its inhabitants. The colorful festival comes to an acme on the final day when 70 mikoshi are joyfully paraded through the streets, carried by teams of spirited men and women dressed in traditional festival   -  happi coats  -  , leggings and bandanas, shaking the kami as much as they can so that he blesses the people even more.

Spirited chanting, traditional dances and plenty of beer make it the merriest time of the year for the Kanda residents.

You can join the Kanda Matsuri celebrations as well, just plan your Tokyo trip and visit to Kanda Jinja Shrine, to coincide with this Tokyo festival that takes place in the month of May.

Getting to Kanda Jinja Shrine

  -   The shrine is at a 5-minute walking distance from the Hijiribashi exit of Ochanomizu Station on the JR Chuo/ Sobu Lines.
  -   The shrine is at a 7-minute walking distance from the Denkigai exit of Akihabara Station on the JR Yamanote/ Keihin-Tohoku Lines, the Tokyo Metro Hibiya Line.
  -   The shrine is at a 5-minute walking distance from Ochanomizu Station on the Tokyo Metro Marunouchi Line, from the Hijiribashi exit of Shin-ochanomizu Station on the Tokyo Metro Chiyoda Line.
  -   The shrine is at a 5-minute walking distance from Suehirocho Station on the Tokyo Metro Ginza Line

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