Tenjin Matsuri

Tenjin Matsuri

July 24-25

The Tenjin Festival in Japan honors the scholar and statesman Sugawara Michizane (845-903), who was deified as Tenjin after his death and regarded as the god of literature. The festival began about 950 c.e. as a purification rite. Today, the Tenjin Festival opens at the Temmangu Shrine with the beating of the Moyooshi Daiko, a drum about five feet in diameter. It lies flat in a cart and is struck by several men, known as Ganji, wearing tall peaked red hats. Other participants in the procession do everything in their power to prevent the drummers from drumming. They remove the platform on which the drum sits and tilt it in every direction, but the drummers keep striking it furiously. The drum-cart is followed by a masked figure on horseback who represents Sarutahiko, the deity who led all the other gods to Japan. There are Lion Dancers to drive away evil spirits, costumed children, and various carts and palanquins carrying local dignitaries and the mayor of Osaka.
Most important is the mikoshi —the heavy, ornately decorated portable shrine in which the soul of Tenjin is believed to reside. In the evening, the parade moves to the river, with numerous barges and boats carrying glowing lanterns, while bonfires illuminate the banks. Fireworks mark the end of the festival, and the barges are towed back up the river so that the sacred objects can be returned to the shrine by morning.

CONTACTS:
Osaka Convention and Tourism Bureau
5F Resona Semba Bldg.
4-4-21, Minamisemba, Chuo-Ku
Osaka, 542-0081 Japan
81-6-6282-5911; fax: 81-6-6282-5914

SOURCES:
HolSymbols-2009, p. 940
IllFestJapan-1993, p. 88
JapanFest-1965, pp. 25, 172

Celebration days: Jul 24; Jul 25