Day 5
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What's this? Fukagawa Hachiman Festival photos by Philbert Ono. Held in mid-August in Koto Ward, Tokyo, this is the festival's full-scale version held once every three years (1996, 1999, 2002, etc.).

Joint Procession of Portable Shrines
Aug. 18, 1996

The four shrine maidens walk the parade route. They are the same ones who performed sacred dances inside the shrine and rode on a truck in the Sacred Carriage Procession. This is their typical attire, white on vermillion robes.

In the early morning on this day, all 54 portable shrines and their bearers arrived by truck. They unloaded and took their places on Eitai-dori avenue fronting the shrine. After a ceremony and a fireworks boom signal, the first portable shrine (from Tomioka 1-chome), called Miyamoto, left Tomioka Hachimangu Shrine at 7:30 a.m. followed by 53 other portable shrines. The last portable shrine left the shrine at 9:00 a.m.

They first headed east on Eitai-dori and followed an 8-kilometer route. The portable shrines made their way along a route which was partially or completely closed to traffic.

The shrine provides a map of the route which is essential if you want to photograph the parade at various locations. (You also need a bicycle.)

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Last modified: 2002-07-10