Kawagoe Matsuri

Kawagoé Matsuri

Every two years on October 14-15

Only during the KawagoÉ Matsuri can festivalgoers view the enormous, elaborate floats of old Edo (the old name for Tokyo). This is because there are now so many telephone and power lines crisscrossing the streets of Japanese cities that it has become almost impossible for these large floats to participate in parades. Instead, the mikoshi, or portable shrines, are often used.
The hon-matsuri, or full festival, is held every other year. More than 20 richly decorated parade floats, thought to be reproductions of floats from Tokyo's Kanda-jinja Shrine, are carried through the streets of KawagoÉ. In the evening, the floats come together and bump into one another in the center of town—a ceremony known as HikkawasÉ . Hyashi bands—which play traditional Japanese music on the flute, drum, shamisen (three-stringed lute), and other instruments—also spar with one another musically, trying their best to interrupt the others' rhythm.

CONTACTS:
Kawagoe City Tourist Bureau
39-19 Wakita Honcho
Kawagoe, Saitama 350-1123 Japan
81-4-9224-8811
www.city.kawagoe.saitama.jp/icity/browser?ActionCo

SOURCES:
IllFestJapan-1993, p. 117

Celebration days:
2011: Oct 15; Oct 16
2012: Oct 20; Oct 21
2013: Oct 19; Oct 20
2014: Oct 18; Oct 19
2015: Oct 17; Oct 18