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Traditionally, gods and spirits are housed in shrines and temples and people come come to these places to recieve blessings.  But in Japan, what happens is that small portable shrines are created and once a year, the gods come to you.  This is done over two or three days, and it is always a cause for great celebration, whether the shrine is big or small. 

Sanja Maturi is one of the biggest Shinto festivals in the Tokyo area.  The festival honors the spirits of three specific men, two fishermen who found a wooden Buddha statue caught in their fishing net and a third person, a wealthy landlord.  These three guys dedicated their lives to Buddhism and created a temple called Senjo-ji where they kept the statue.  There they used to have festivals called “Kanon Matsuri” or “Asakusa Matsuri” until the Edo period, when the Tokugawa shogunate created the Asakusa Shrine dedicated to the three men and three portable shrines (神輿 mikoshi) decorated with gold and weighing close to one ton each. From then the Sanja Maturi took off.

The festival itself is a three-day extraveganza, with a WHOLE lot of people (over 1.5 million in 2007) spread out all over the Asakusa area in anticipation of the festival. Friday is the procession (大行列 daigyouretu) a large parade down the streets near the shrine with people in lavish costumes. On Saturday, over 100 portable shrines from neighboring shrines are paraded through the streets.  Then on Sunday the three main mikoshi from the Asakusa Shrine are paraded though the streets.

Not everyone is allowed to carry the mikoshi.  This task is given to the men and women of the neighborhood. There are specific orgainizations that are assigned the role. But since there are a LOT of groups who want to carry, each organization carries for a certain period and passes it on to the next group, like an Olympic torch relay. The difference is the moment of passing is VERY exciting. The rush of the people as they are changing, the pushing and shoving, the shouting, there is a LOT of adrelanine in the air.  The areas for changing are not recommended for the faint of heart.

All in all, this is a very fun and exciting festival in May and if you are in the Tokyo area, I highly reccomend you go!