GALLERY: Crowds descend on Asakusa for Sanja Matsuri

Over the weekend the streets of Asakusa, Tokyo played host once again to one of the Japan capital’s biggest and, arguably, brashest festivals, the Sanja Matsuri (三社祭).

Centering around the popular temple complex surrounding Asakusa Shrine and Sensō-ji in the heart of Asakusa, the festival of over 700 years is considered one three great Shinto knees ups in Tokyo (the other two being Kanda Matsuri and Hie Shrine’s Sanno Festival). Sanja Matsuri is held annually on the third weekend (Fri - Sun) in May to honor the three men who founded Senso-ji, whose spirits now reside in Asakusa Shrine.

Sanja festivities base themselves around the parading of mikoshi, portable (using the term very loosely - these things weigh a veritable tonne) ‘shrines’ from around the neighborhood that are loaded up with the hopes and dreams of local business. Parties parade their mikoshi throughout the packed streets of Asakusa before heading back to shrine’s base.

Those who have witnessed the feverish, sweaty, and drunken energy that local festivals based around just one or two of these mikoshi can generate will understand why Sanja Matsuri should have a reputation for being a bit wild. One hundred mikoshi make an appearance every Saturday (the second day) during the festival, and these are only the little ones. On the Sunday, festival organizers bring out the big guns, the mikoshi from Asakusa Shrine itself which represent each of the three founders of Sensō-ji.

In the past, some shrine bearers have struggled to contain their excitement at the site of this spiritual triumvirate. The 2008 edition of the Sanja Matsuri went ahead without the big-three mikoshi after a series of incidents in which festival goers acted upon urges to clamber atop the portable shrines (as if they weren’t heavy enough already). The following year, under assurances of best behaviour, they were brought out again and normal (meaning ‘suitably wild’) business was resumed.

We were present for the Saturday of the 2017 edition of Sanja Matsuri, when we were able to squash ourselves into place a few yards from the steps of Sensō-ji to see the first of the day’s 100 mikoshi be paraded in front of the braying crowds.

See more images from the festival at www.city-cost.com