🏮 Itabashi No Ta Asobi

板橋の田遊び

Itabashi, Tokyo (Kitano Shrine) · Every year on 11 February

Important Intangible Folk Cultural PropertyTraditional performing arts

150 days to go
Rooms around Itabashi, Tokyo fill up while the festival is on.

Itabashi no Taasobi (Tamaru Kitano Shrine Taasobi) is held every year on February 11 at Tamaru Kitano Shrine in Tokumaru, Itabashi Ward, Tokyo. It is a Shinto ritual praying for a bountiful harvest of the five grains and the prosperity of descendants, and is designated a national Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property. It consists of two parts: the 'Hon Taasobi' in the main shrine building and the 'Niwa Taasobi' in the shrine grounds, and is familiar as an annual event deeply tied to the region's agricultural faith. This festival has a tradition continuing from the Kamakura period, and is also registered as an intangible cultural property of Itabashi Ward. It offers words and gestures of rice cultivation to the god of the fields, performing the entire process from rice planting to harvest with distinctive songs and hayashi music. On the mogari (stage) set up in front of the worship hall, the old man, okame, and saotome perform humorous gestures. The 'kuwa no shigusa' (hoe gesture) of tilling the field and the rice harvesting scene are particularly striking. Also, the 'douage' (raising up) wishing for the maturation of seedlings and the growth of children, and the seed-sowing song 'Let's sow the seeds of good fortune' are highlights, with performances imbued with wishes for a good harvest throughout.

Getting there

About 18 minutes on foot from Tobu Nerima Station on the Tobu Tojo Line, or immediately on foot after getting off at the Toei Bus 'Tokumaru Kitano Shrine' stop.