This festival held at Omiya-Shrine is one of the three greatest fire festivals of summer in Kumamoto, known as the Land of Fire. Its rivals are the Hi-no-Kuni Matsuri, or the Land of Fire Festival, held in mid-August in Kumamoto City and the Kiku…
Essentially a very important Shinto religious festival, Sanja Matsuri takes place over the third weekend in May and attracts up to 2 million visitors to the Asakusa district of Tokyo. The major procession on Sunday sees 3 mikoshi (shrines) being carr…
The Grand Festval of Spring includes the magnificent sight of 1000 armour clad Samurai warriors parading through the streets of Nikko to escort 3 palanquins (hand borne covered wooden litters) to the Yomeimon Shrine.
One of the most important festivals in Japan and the best known in Tokyo, the Kanda Matsuri takes place over 2 days in mid May with a big parade of traditionally dressed residents, Shinto priests and floats on the forst day. On the Sunday hundreds of…
The water drawing ceremony forms the culmination of this sacred Japanese Buddhist festival in Nara, where water is taken from a stream that flows only once a year. Buddhist priests hold a torchlit procession to the well to draw the water in a ceremon…