Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.46 ...

holds many

festivals A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival ...

(''matsuri'') throughout the year. Major

Shinto Shinto () is a religion from Japan. Classified as an East Asian religion by scholars of religion, its practitioners often regard it as Japan's indigenous religion and as a nature religion. Scholars sometimes call its practitioners ''Shint ...

shrine festivals include the Sanno Festival at

Hie Shrine Hie may refer to: * Hie (pronoun), an Old English pronoun * Hie Shrine, a Shinto shrine in Tokyo, Japan * Hie Station, in Nishiwaki, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan * Health information exchange * Highlands and Islands Enterprise * Holiday Inn Expres ...

, and the Sanja Festival at

Asakusa Shrine is a Shinto shrine located in the Asakusa district of Tokyo, Japan. Also known as , it is one of the most famous Shinto shrines in the city. The shrine honors the three men who founded the Sensō-ji. Asakusa Shrine is part of a larger groupi ...

. The

Kanda Matsuri or the Kanda Festival, is one of the three great Shinto festivals of Tokyo, along with the Fukagawa Matsuri and Sannō Matsuri. The festival started in the early 17th century as a celebration of Tokugawa Ieyasu's decisive victory at the battle ...

in Tokyo is held every two years in May. The festival features a parade with elaborately decorated floats and thousands of people. More secular and seasonal festivals include cherry blossom, or ''sakura'', viewing parties in the spring where thousands gather in parks such as Ueno Park,

Inokashira Park is a park which straddles Musashino and Mitaka in western Tokyo, Japan. Inokashira Pond (井の頭池) and the , established during the Edo period, are the primary sources of the Kanda River. The land was given to Tokyo in 1913. On May 1, 19 ...

, and the

Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden is a large park and garden in Shinjuku and Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. It was originally a residence of the Naitō family in the Edo period. Afterward, it became a garden under the management of Japan Imperial Household Agency. It is now a nat ...

for picnics under the

cherry trees A cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus ''Prunus'', and is a fleshy drupe (stone fruit). Commercial cherries are obtained from cultivars of several species, such as the sweet ''Prunus avium'' and the sour ''Prunus cerasus''. The na ...

. In the summer annual firework and dance festivals such as the

Sumida River The is a river that flows through central Tokyo, Japan. It branches from the Arakawa River at Iwabuchi (in Kita-ku) and flows into Tokyo Bay. Its tributaries include the Kanda and Shakujii rivers. It passes through the Kita, Adachi, Ara ...

fireworks festival on the last Saturday of July, and the Kōenji Awa Odori dance festival on the last weekend in August attract millions of viewers.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Festivals In Tokyo

See also

References