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江戸歳事記 4巻 付録1巻 /

Sanno Festival

A Festival of Hie Shrine in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo

This festival comes from a ritual involving the god-buddha Sanno Gongen. Shrines that carried out rituals transferring Sanno to the Hie (now called Hiyoshi) Grand Shrine in Otsu, Shiga Prefecture (formerly Omi Province), were called Hie Shrines, and sometimes Hie Sanno Shrines or simply Sanno Gongen. Hence, these festivals became known as Sanno Festivals.

 

Among these festivals, the most famous is the one held at the Hie Shrine located in Nagatacho, Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo. There the term "Sanno Festival" refer s, in a narrow sense, to the ritual transferring of Sanno in a portable shrine.

 

During the Bunmei era (1469-1487), Ota Dokan transferred Sanno into the castle to serve as a guardian deity after he finished building Edo Castle. Later, the Tokugawa shogunal (military ruling) family designated the Hie Shrine in Nagatacho as the guardian shrine for the castle, made Sanno the guardian deity of the Tokugawa family, and brought the shrine under direct bakufu (military government) control. As a result, the Sanno Festival came to also be called the National Festival or the Official Festival.

 

These days this grand festival is held on June 15. Two days prior, on June 13 (or some other day if the 13th falls on Saturday or Sunday), the transferal ritual is performed. This ritual involves a procession of two phoenix palanquins, a portable shrine, and five floats that make the rounds of the area of parishioners, who total about 500 people.

 

In the Edo period (1603-1867), from the time of the third shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu, every shogun inspected and paid respect to portable shrines that entered Edo Castle. Toward the end of the Edo period, the number of floats exceeded sixty.

 

The Sanno Festival and the Kanda Festival (a festival of Kanda Shrine, located in Soto-Kanda), held in alternate years, were the two great festivals of Edo. In addition, the Hiyoshi Grand Shrine in Otsu, Shiga Prefecture, also has a Sanno Festival. It runs from April 12 to 15 at its Sanno Head Hall of Worship. This festival, also known as the Hiyoshi Festival, was first carried out in 791.

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References

  1. 福原敏男 著,渡辺出版
  2. 『舞踊學』第5号(1982年)
  3. サンプルページ「山王祭」の項
  4. サンプルページ「日吉山王祭(ひよしさんのうさい)」の項
  5. 「さんのうまつり【山王祭】」の項