To the Ten'nousai Festival [ Machiya/Minami Senju - GX7 ]

Yesterday (June 6th, 2015), I had a chance to see one of Tokyo's really awesome events.

The Ten'nousai (天王祭) is a festival for Susanoo Shrine (素盞雄神社), in Minami Senju, Tokyo that takes place at the beginning of summer every year. And once every three years they do their rocking parade. And by rocking I don't mean rockin' out to music - they literally rock the huge parade floats they carry down the road on their shoulders.

It's quite a sight to see. The video above was taken near the intersection of the Toden Arakawa Line in Machiya (町屋), and it shows a pretty good view of what the parade is like. Click on the link to watch it on YouTube and if you do, make sure to watch it at the full resolution.

And if you'd like to watch a close-up, here's another video:



Now that's just crazy, especially when you consider the float they're carrying weighs at least 100kg, possibly a lot more, and how precariously low it goes on each swing.

Now for some photos:




This pic is a bit better resolution than the videos, and shows the ornate detail of the float they're carrying.




Not to be outdone by the men, the women of the festival had a float of their own. They also rocked the float insanely low each time. Crazy dangerous I'm sure but also really cool.




Another view of the women carrying their float. Both men and women had at least 3x as many people waiting in reserve to jump in in case someone couldn't take the weight anymore.




A bit before the parade got to us I got a few shots of the three floats as they approached. The one in front is a kids' float. It's much smaller but still pretty heavy.




A woman standing on a little step takes pics of the procession.




Drummers add a bit of oomph to the events.

***

All in all it was a bit of an odd festival. When you hear summer festival in Japan, your initial thoughts go to waves of crowds in the hot summer eating fried chicken on sticks, playing games of chance, and watching dancers go by. But this one had none of that, at least not where I was. I'm sure there was a lot of alcohol being consumed in the background, and if I'd been able to head to the main shrine I'm sure there was something to eat, but the main event here was surely this procession of floats, and the crazy people willing to risk life and limb for tradition.

It was a unique experience among all the festivals I've seen here and IMO one of the best.

For more info head to the Suanou Jinja Web Site (in Japanese). Alas the rocking parade happens only every 3 years, so if you missed it, you'll have to wait... or click on my videos to see more.

Let the summer begin!