🏮 Setagaya Boro Ichi

世田谷ボロ市

Setagaya, Tokyo (Boroichi Street) · Every year on 15 January

Food stalls

123 days to go
Rooms around Setagaya, Tokyo fill up while the festival is on.

Setagaya no Boro-ichi is held twice a year on Boro-ichi Street in Setagaya Ward, Tokyo: December 15–16 and January 15–16. It is a year-end market that draws about 200,000 people a day and features many street stalls. At the venue, a 3-minute walk from Setagaya Station and Kamimachi Station on the Setagaya Line, secondhand clothing, New Year goods, and a wide range of other items are sold. Its origins date back to 1578 (Tensho 6), when Hojo Ujimasa, then lord of Odawara Castle, established a free market (a six-day market) in Setagaya Shinjuku. After the fall of the Hojo clan, it changed into a year-end market during the Edo period, and after the Meiji era the dates shifted to the current December and January dates. From around the 1880s, dealing in secondhand clothing and rags became mainstream, and the common name Boro-ichi took hold; it became the official name after World War II. The highlight is the Daikan Procession, held once every five years. It revives the market inspection by the daikan that had continued since before 1795, brought back for the Meiji Centennial in 1968, with local people wearing costumes modeled on those of the time.