Sanja Matsuri

Asakusa Shrine stands immediately to the right of Sensō-ji's main hall. For most of its history the two were a single religious complex, and the shrine was known as Sanja Gongen, reflecting the fusion of Buddhist and Shinto worship. When the Meiji government ordered the separation of Shinto and Buddhism (shinbutsu bunri) from 1868, the shrine became an independent Shinto institution and was renamed Asakusa Shrine in 1873.

The festival was once held in the third month of the lunar calendar, with the mikoshi carried by boat along the Sumida River. It moved to May in the Meiji period. The present main hall was built in 1649 on the order of the third Tokugawa shogun, Iemitsu, and survived both the Great Kantō Earthquake and the air raids of 1945.

Each day of the festival has its own focus, and the pattern is the same every year.

A mikoshi is a portable shrine into which the deity is transferred for the festival, so that it can be carried through its parish and bring blessings to the streets. The three great mikoshi of Asakusa Shrine, known as Ichi-no-miya, Ni-no-miya and San-no-miya, each carry one of the three enshrined men. They weigh around a tonne each and are borne on long poles by dozens of bearers at once, who rotate constantly.

Bearers lift, sway and bounce the mikoshi to the chant of 'seiya, soiya', a vigorous style said to invigorate the deity. The Sunday miyadashi, when the three mikoshi are pushed out of the shrine through a dense crowd of bearers vying to get a shoulder under the poles, is the festival's most intense moment.

Asakusa is reached by the Ginza and Asakusa subway lines and the Tōbu line. The festival draws enormous crowds, particularly around Sensō-ji and on the Sunday morning; the smaller neighbourhood mikoshi in the side streets are often easier to watch at close range.

The Sanja Matsuri has a reputation for rowdiness. Climbing onto a mikoshi is strictly forbidden, as it shows disrespect to the deity and endangers the bearers; repeated violations have in the past led the organisers to curtail the Sunday procession. Spectators should keep clear of moving mikoshi, which can swing suddenly into the crowd, and should not join a team without being invited.