🏮 Nikko Toshogu Shunki Reitaisai
日光東照宮春季例大祭
Nikko, Tochigi (Nikko Toshogu Shrine) · Every year on 17 May
245 days to go
Rooms around Nikko, Tochigi fill up while the festival is on.
The Nikko Toshogu Shrine Spring Grand Festival is held over two days, May 17 and 18, every year at Nikko Toshogu Shrine in Nikko City, Tochigi Prefecture. It is a customary spring event held at the shrine buildings, a World Heritage site enshrining Tokugawa Ieyasu, where traditional Shinto rituals are performed. The central event of the festival, the Hyakumono Soroe Sen-nin Musha Gyoretsu [Mikoshi Togyo Sai], recreates the procession that took place when Ieyasu's spirit was moved from Kunozan in Sunpu to Nikko. On May 18, three mikoshi (portable shrines) are carried about one kilometer from the grounds of Futarasan Shrine to the Otabisho. More than 1,200 people in total accompany the procession, and along with priests on horseback, there are 100 armored warriors, 50 each carrying bows, spears, and guns, as well as lions and yaotome, forming an impressive parade that goes back and forth along the approach. On May 17, the brave Shinji Yabusame, in which archers shoot at targets from horseback, is offered. Also, when the procession arrives at the Otabisho, the Otabisho Festival is held with offerings of sacred food, and the Yaotome no Mai and Azuma Asobi no Mai dances are traditionally performed. It is a festival that carries on a grand historical picture scroll to the present day.
Getting there
From JR Nikko Line's Nikko Station or Tobu Nikko Line's Tobu Nikko Station, take the Tobu Bus bound for Chuzenji Onsen or Yumoto Onsen for about 6 minutes, get off at Yasukawa-cho and walk about 5 minutes, or take the World Heritage Tour Bus, get off at Nishi Sando and walk 5 minutes. By car, about 5 minutes from Nikko IC on the Nikko Utsunomiya Road.
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