The Kanda Festival, counted among Japan's and Edo's three great festivals, begins today, the 11th, and for seven days through the 17th the area will be wrapped in excitement from a series of rites. In Kanda-Nishikicho next to the Palaceside Building, festival lanterns and banners color the streets, and at the community hub Chiyoda Platform Square the splendid "Nishiki-san mikoshi" of the Nishikicho 3-chome and Nishikicho 3-chome Daiichi neighborhood associations are on display.
The festival is held every two years; the previous one in 2021 was cancelled because of COVID-19, so this is the first in four years, since 2019. The rites scheduled for this weekend, the 13th and 14th, are the highlight. Excitement peaks with the Shinko-sai, when mikoshi and floats process, and the Mikoshi Miya-iri, when some 200 large and small mikoshi from each neighborhood stream toward Kanda Myojin in Chiyoda, Tokyo.
"Seiya! Seiya!" The stirring shouts of the mikoshi bearers blow the pandemic away.