Tenjin Matsuri

Osaka Tenmangū was founded in 949, and shrine tradition dates the festival to 951, when a sacred halberd (hoko) was set adrift on the river from the shore near the shrine. Where it washed ashore, a temporary shrine was set up and the deity was carried there by boat for purification rites. This hoko-nagashi rite is still performed on the first day of the festival.

In the Edo period, when Osaka was the commercial hub of Japan, wealthy merchant houses and guilds sponsored ever larger boats and processions, and the festival became one of the showpieces of urban culture. The shrine and the festival were interrupted several times by fires and, in the twentieth century, by war, but the river procession was revived after the Second World War.

The first day, the eve (yoimiya), begins in the morning with rites at the shrine and the hoko-nagashi, in which a boy dressed in court costume sets a sacred halberd afloat on the Dōjima river. Through the day the moyōshi-daiko drum group processes through the neighbourhood, the drummers in tall red hats beating a large drum mounted on a float to announce the festival. In the evening, lion dancers and drums fill the streets around the shrine.

The main day (hon-miya) centres on the two processions. In the afternoon the rikutogyo, a land procession of some three thousand people in costumes of the Heian period and later – drummers, lion dancers, umbrella bearers, children, officials on horseback and the deity's palanquin – leaves the shrine and walks to the river.

At dusk the funatogyo begins. The deity boards a ceremonial boat, and a flotilla of roughly a hundred vessels moves along the Ōkawa: the shrine's own boats, boats of sponsoring guilds and companies, boats carrying bunraku puppets and performers, and boats with bonfires. Crews call out and clap the rhythmic Osaka hand-clap chant as boats pass one another. Offering fireworks (hōnō hanabi) are launched from the riverbank throughout the evening.

The riverbanks of the Ōkawa around Tenmabashi, Sakuranomiya and the Kawasaki area fill with spectators on the evening of the 25th, and the bridges are closed to standing. Many people claim their places in the afternoon. Ticketed seats on riverside stands and viewing boats are available, but the procession can also be watched from the public banks.

The festival falls at the height of Osaka's summer heat. Stalls line the approaches to the shrine on both days, and many young people come in yukata.