Matsuri: What Happens at a Japanese Festival and How to Join In

A matsuri is a festival held by a shrine for its deity, and almost every one of the roughly 80,000 shrines in Japan holds at least one a year. Most are small and local. A few dozen are enormous, ancient, and among the best things you can witness in the country.

They are also the moment when Japan’s famous public reserve is suspended entirely. If you have found the country quiet, go to a matsuri.

What is actually happening

At the core of most matsuri is a mikoshi — a portable shrine, often gilded, weighing several hundred kilos, into which the shrine’s deity is temporarily transferred.

Teams of neighbourhood residents carry it through the streets, deliberately shaking and jolting it. The received explanation is that the motion pleases and energises the deity, and that the route blesses the area it passes through.

Some festivals use dashi or yamahoko instead: enormous wheeled floats, some several storeys high and weighing over ten tonnes, pulled by ropes with musicians riding on board.

The shouting — wasshoi, soiya, essa — is the carrying rhythm. It is what keeps thirty people moving in step under a very heavy object.

The dozen worth planning around

Gion Matsuri, as the model

Kyoto’s Gion Matsuri began in 869 as a plea to end an epidemic and has run, with interruptions, ever since. It occupies the whole of July.

The parts that matter:

• Yoiyama (14–16 and 21–23 July) — the evenings before the processions. Streets closed to traffic, floats lit with lanterns, and old merchant houses opening their front rooms to display family heirlooms. This is arguably better than the parade.
• Yamaboko Junko (17 and 24 July) — the procession. Thirty-odd floats, the largest weighing about 12 tonnes and standing 25 metres, pulled by teams of dozens. At each corner they are turned by laying wet bamboo under the wooden wheels and hauling sideways, which takes several minutes and is the highlight.

The floats are assembled entirely without nails, using rope-binding techniques passed down within each neighbourhood association.

Joining in

Most matsuri are watched. Two major ones are not.

Awa Odori (Tokushima, 12–15 August) — a dance festival with a 400-year history and around a million spectators. There is a niwaka-ren, an ad-hoc group anyone can join, which gathers at set times and dances the route with everyone else. The chant translates roughly as “the dancing fool and the watching fool are both fools, so you may as well dance”.

Nebuta (Aomori, 2–7 August) — anyone may dance as a haneto, provided they wear the costume. It can be rented in the city for a few thousand yen. This is unusual and genuinely welcoming.

For others, ask at the local tourist office. Some neighbourhood associations will let visitors help carry a mikoshi, particularly in smaller towns where hands are short — Japan’s ageing population has made this a real issue and outside help is increasingly welcomed.

→ Japan’s ageing population, seen from the train window

Fireworks

Hanabi taikai are a separate genre and a serious one. Japanese fireworks are technically among the best in the world, with a strong tradition of large spherical shells, and displays run for one to two hours with tens of thousands of shells.

The biggest: Sumidagawa (Tokyo, late July), Nagaoka (Niigata, 2–3 Aug), Omagari (Akita, late Aug, a national competition), Tsuchiura (Ibaraki, autumn).

Practicalities: go hours early for a spot, expect enormous crowds, and expect station queues afterwards that can take over an hour. Many venues sell paid seating, which is worth it.

Practical advice

1. Book accommodation months ahead

   For the major festivals, hotels in the city sell out and prices double. Consider staying one town away and travelling in.




2. Arrive early and pick a spot

   Procession routes are published. Corners are the best viewing — that is where the difficult manoeuvres happen.




3. Eat from the stalls

   Yatai line the route: yakisoba, takoyaki, grilled squid, chocolate bananas, shaved ice. Cash only.




4. Wear a yukata if you want to

   Rental shops in festival cities will dress you for a few thousand yen. Entirely welcomed, never required.




5. Plan the way home

   Stations after a big festival are severely congested and trains run to a special timetable. Walking one station away is often faster.

Etiquette

• Do not touch the mikoshi or the floats unless invited. They are sacred objects and the carrying teams train for them.
• Do not block the route. Marshals in happi coats will move you, politely.
• Photography is generally fine, but not with flash into carriers’ faces, and not standing in the road.
• The carriers may be very drunk. This is traditional and tolerated. Give them room.
• Rubbish goes back to the stall you bought from.

Smaller is often better

The famous festivals are magnificent and extremely crowded. A neighbourhood shrine festival on an ordinary weekend — a hundred people, one mikoshi, a dozen stalls, children in yukata, a taiko drum — will give you more of what a matsuri actually is.

Check the local shrine’s noticeboard or ask at a tourist office. Late summer weekends, almost anywhere, will produce one.

Questions people actually ask

Which festival should I plan a trip around?

Gion Matsuri in July if you want scale and history; Nebuta in August if you want spectacle and the chance to participate; Awa Odori if you want to dance. Sapporo’s Snow Festival if you are coming in winter.

Do I need a ticket?

Most are free and held in the street. Some have paid grandstand seating for the main procession, sold in advance, which is worth it for the biggest ones.

Can I wear a yukata?

Yes, and it is welcomed. Rental shops in festival cities will dress you for a few thousand yen. It is not appropriation; it is what the occasion is for.

Are festivals suitable for children?

Very — Japanese festivals are full of children. The crowd density at the biggest ones is the real consideration, particularly in the heat.

How crowded is Gion Matsuri really?

The Yoiyama evenings draw several hundred thousand people into central Kyoto and movement becomes slow. Go early in the evening, or on the less-famous 21–23 July dates.

Is there anything in winter?

Yes — Sapporo’s Snow Festival in early February, the fire festivals of Nozawa Onsen in January, and New Year shrine visits, which are their own enormous event.