Tsukiji Shishi Matsuri



The Tsukiji Shisi Matsuri -lion festival- is a gold spring festival of the Namiyoke Inari shrine in Tsukiji, and will be held in June every year.

The shrine was constructed on the land which was reclaimed from the sea called Hibiya small bay in early stages of Togugawa Period. The construction had reached to an extreme of difficulty because the sea ran high when a image of the Inari -a god shaped in a fox- flowed and reached from the midst marine and the wave was settled exactly. Since then, the image has come to obtain thick faith of people. 

The highlight of this festival is a pair of lion heads which are believed to be another form of the Inari. A male lion is shouldered by men and a female lion is shouldered by women. The shrinefs main mikoshi is shouldered by both men and women.

In this yearfs festival, energetic women shouldered the female lion with a weight of 700kg. Moreover, since Tsukiji is a town unseparable from the fish market, fish dealers of the market were shouldering the main mikoshi with sufficient influence.






The head of a female lion settled in front of the shrine.(left)
The movable studio with a doll standing on top of the roof.
People play the Matsuri-bayashi ?festival music- in the studio.(right)


A monk in red costume riding on a horse takes the lead of Mikoshi parade
which rolls about in the fish market.


The fish dealers are shouldering the shrinefs main Mikosi.
Many of them are old men.


Young women are also allowed to shoulder the Mikoshi.


The female lion head is shouldered by only women.




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