Design Festa is an international art event open to artists from all over the world as a place to exhibit their creative talent. Anyone who has original...
'Shichi Go San' means the odd luck numbers 'Seven Five Three'. Prayers are offered for the health and growth of girls aged three and seven, and boys aged...
Labour Thanksgiving Day (Kinro Kansha No Hi) has been a national public holiday in honour of labour since 1948. It is on the same date as the traditional...
Six 10m- (30ft-) high brightly painted and illuminated floats are pulled out of the grounds of Chichibu Shrine and into the streets of the town. Each...
The Gishi-sai is a festival held at Sengakuji Temple, honouring the '47 loyal retainers in Akoh', a drama based on an incident which actually took place...
Themes:
Kids' Stuff
, Music
, Art & Literature
, History
, Theatre & Film
This festival of dance at one of the three most important Shinto shrines in Japan includes everything from the ancient kagura Shinto shrine dance to saru...
Themes:
History
, Dance
, Culture
, Religion
, Music
, Sport
The Hagoita-Ichi (Battledore Fair) is an annual fair held at theSenso-ji Temple in Asakusa. Street stalls sell all shapes and sizes of hagoita - decorative...
The birthday of the current emperor is always a national holiday. If the emperor changes, the national holiday changes to the birthday of the new emperor....
Under cover of darkness, young men disguised as the demon Namahage run about the town crying eerily. They wear devil masks, straw skirts, and straw shoes,...
Themes:
History
, Religion
, Spectacle
, Dance
, Kids' Stuff
, Music
New Year is Japan's biggest festival. That is not to say it is the most dramatic spectacle, because much of its activity is private, family affairs and...
A symbolic religious festival, on Okera Mairi it is traditional to visit the Yasaka Shrine in Kyoto to obtain the sacred flame of okera, a medicinal herb....
Imagine a kind of religious handball match. The ball is 30cm (1ft) in diameter and made of solid wood. The teams line up in loin cloths after purification...
Firemen in Edo period costume perform acrobatic stunts on top of bamboo ladders. The display includes the most recent developments in modern fire fighting...
A million people pass through the sixth century Imamiya-Ebisu Shrine during the three-day January festival to pray to Ebisu (or informally, 'Ebessan'),...
Themes:
Spectacle
, Dance
, Religion
, Music
, Business
A trumpet blows and the 33 hectares (80 acres) of moorland at Wakakusayama (Wakakusa Hill) burst into flames. Silhouetted against the smoke and fireworks,...
Themes:
Kids' Stuff
, History
, Religion
, Culture
Everybody in Japan who has reached the age of 20 in the previous 12 months celebrates their coming of age on this day. Twenty is the minimum legal age...
Teams of young men race to the Taiheizan Miyoshi shrine carrying bonten (or bonden in the local dialect). Bonten are sacred symbols of masculinity, 3m...
Men and women take part in the Zen archery contest at Sanjusangendo. This extraordinary building, apart from being the longest wooden structure in the...
Themes:
Kids' Stuff
, History
, Sport
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