Summer Spirit in Asakusa; Participants Celebrate Sanja Matsuri Festival in Asakusa

The Yomiuri Shimbun

13:37 JST, May 19, 2025

People clad in hanten coats cry out “Oisa” and “Soiya” as they carry a mikoshi portable shrine in Taito Ward, Tokyo, on Sunday, the final day of the three-day Sanja Matsuri festival. Carrying mikoshi out of Asakusa Shrine, an important phase of the festival, is performed three times with a different mikoshi each time. The mikoshi was carried through the shrine’s torii gate at around 7 a.m. on the day and raised high in front of the main hall of adjacent Sensoji temple before being parading through the neighborhood. The festival is known as a symbol of early summer in Japan.