🏮 Hagoita Ichi

羽子板市

Taito, Tokyo (Sensoji Temple and Others) · Every year on 17 December

Food stalls

94 days to go
Rooms around Taito, Tokyo fill up while the festival is on.

Hagoita Market is a traditional year-end market held every year from December 17 to 19 at Senso-ji Temple in Taito Ward, Tokyo. This event, which dates back to the Edo period, features rows of stalls around the Niomon Gate selling hagoita (decorated wooden paddles), a New Year's good-luck item, and it bustles with people preparing to welcome the new year. The origin of this festival goes back to the year-end market. The shuttlecock used in hanetsuki resembles a dragonfly, which was thought to eat illness, and the bean (mame) at its tip carried the auspicious meaning of being able to live diligently (mame ni kuraseru), so hagoita came to be valued as good-luck charms. Eventually, the custom of giving them to families with newborn girls became widespread, and hagoita became the main feature of the market, which came to be called Hagoita Market. The highlight is the sight of various hagoita lined up, including yakusha hagoita with kabuki actors' faces painted on them and gorgeous oshie hagoita. Distinctive features include lively calls and tejime hand-clapping, and attention also goes to hagoita depicting the year's social conditions, collaborations with Tezuka manga, and exhibits by Tokyo University of the Arts Design Department. Workshops are sometimes held, and the market is full of lively activity with people praying for children's growth and family health.