A Festival as the Soul of the Japanese – First Mikoshi Experience in My Life during the Sanno-Matsuri Festival, One of the Three Major Festivals of Japan [Advance Preparation Part ]

There are many famous festivals across Japan, including the Neputa Festival, Danjiri Festival, Hakata Dontaku Festival, and Awa Dance Festival. Here in the area of Yaesu, Nihonbashi, and Kyobashi, the Sanno-Matsuri Festival is famous as one of three major festivals of Japan or one of three major festivals of Edo (the former name of Tokyo).

The Sanno-Matsuri Festival is an annual festival of the Hie Shrine in Akasaka. It is indeed a magnificent and splendid festival, which was presented to successive shoguns in the Edo period.

It is held for several days, involving a procession called Shinkosai and a portable shrine parade called Mikoshi Togyo!

I was a complete outsider to this area in terms of both a birthplace and a workplace, but amazingly, I had a change to carry the Mikoshi (a portable shrine) this time with the employees of Tokyo Tatemono Co., Ltd., Japan’s oldest developer that had many buildings in this area.

The Sanno-Matsuri Festival has an honorable history and tradition.  Such a festival was going to be held this time on a full-fledged basis for the first time in six years after the COVID-19 crisis!

So, I participated in the workshop titled “Edo-machi Juku” with Ms. S, the editor, to learn about the Sanno-Matsuri Festival, one of the three major festivals of Edo, with the aim of understanding the spirits of all the people in the urban area who had long waited for the festival as much as possible.

Edo-machi Juku was very interesting!

Society with nothing to discard, culture that can value what is to be discarded, Recycling of rolls of cloth, ability to adopt things from overseas by adapting them to a Japanese style, and a system of self-government by residents.

Those aspects even made me think that the system in the Edo period might be able to solve all the depressing issues of these days.

The talk session about the Mikoshi, held by Mr. Hosoda in the latter half of the workshop, was also very good for enjoying the Sanno-Matsuri Festival.

I heard that the larger and heavier the Mikoshi hand-made by craftsmen was, the higher the status!

As a resident in Sagami-no-kuni, in other words, Kanagawa Prefecture, who immersed myself in the Edo culture pleasantly, I received a call about a mission from the editor Ms. S who said, “Next, you will participate in a session for learning how to carry the Mikoshi, held in Tokyo Tatemono Co., Ltd.!”

I picked up on the atmosphere of not allowing me to participate in the festival with a half-hearted attempt from the Edo-machi Juku and the rally.

Next day, I visited a festival goods shop for the first time in my life in order to buy Jika-tabi (split-toes heavy cloth shoes) and short Handako pants (I learned the correct name of the pants for the first time).

My body, mind, and brain were completely in the full Sanno-Matsuri Festival mode.

However, I would participate only in the Mikoshi parade called Shitamachi Rengo Togyo on the last day of the Sanno-Matsuri Festival held for several days.

The Shitamachi Rengo Togyo is a grand parade formed by 16 Mikoshi portable shrines in total carried by people from Yaesu, Nihonbashi, Kyobashi, Kayaba-cho/Kabuto-cho, Hacchobori, Edobashi, and Takara-cho.

I was an indoor type of person, lacked exercise, and hadn’t ever experienced carrying a Mikoshi, so I wondered what would happen on the day…

To be continued to the latter part titled Shitamachi Rengo Togyo Parade Part