Fukagawa Matsuri

Fukagawa Matsuri, also called Fukagawa Hachiman Matsuri, is the annual grand festival of Tomioka Hachimangu in Koto, Tokyo. It is counted among the Three Great Festivals of Edo, together with the Sanno Matsuri of Hie Shrine in Akasaka and the Kanda Matsuri of Kanda Myojin.

History

Tomioka Hachimangu was founded in 1627 by the priest Chosei-hoin at Eitaijima, its present site. The sandbanks around it were filled in to make room for the shrine grounds and the homes of its parishioners. In the Edo period the Tokugawa shoguns, who held Hachiman in special regard as the guardian deity of the Minamoto clan, gave the shrine their protection, and it came to be known as the largest Hachiman shrine in Edo.

The water-splashing festival

The festival's other name, Mizukake Matsuri (水掛け祭), means water-splashing festival. Spectators along the route throw purifying water over the bearers of the mikoshi, portable shrines, who carry them to the traditional chant of wasshoi. Bearers and onlookers celebrate together, and the shrine presents the festival as one that keeps the spirit of old Edo alive.

The main festival

Every third year the shrine's horen (御鳳輦), an imperial-style palanquin carrying the deity, goes out in procession. That year is called the hon-matsuri, the main festival. The 53 mikoshi of the parish neighbourhoods then gather and are carried together in one combined procession.

The golden mikoshi

The shrine once owned three mikoshi covered in gold, said to have been given by Kinokuniya Bunzaemon, a wealthy merchant of the Genroku years. They burned in the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. In 1991, 68 years later, a new golden mikoshi was dedicated, which the shrine calls the largest in Japan. Made by Asako Shukei XVI, it weighs about 4.5 tons, has a roof of 24 kilograms of pure gold and is set with diamonds and more than 2,000 rubies.

Its size means it cannot be carried every year, so the shrine had a second mikoshi made. Known as the Ni-no-miya, it was first carried at the grand festival of 1997.