Narita Gion Festival: Ornate Floats and Street Dancing

Every July the temple town of Narita in Chiba Prefecture fills with flutes, drums and the groan of wooden wheels on stone. The Narita Gion Festival is held together with Gion-e, a Buddhist observance at Naritasan Shinshoji temple in which prayers are offered to Dainichi Nyorai, the cosmic Buddha regarded as the true nature of Fudo Myoo, the temple's principal image. Ten floats belonging to Naritasan and nine neighbouring districts, along with a portable shrine, work their way along the sloping approach road for three days. The festival carries roughly three hundred years of history and draws around 450,000 people.

Hauling Floats Up a Steep Approach

The first day opens in the afternoon with a safety prayer and a sake barrel opening in front of the Great Main Hall. Floats built from solid zelkova, carved all over in the bold Kanto style, line up on the stone paving beside lighter carts crowned with towering figures. The approach drops sharply toward the temple and then climbs again, and there is no engine anywhere: several tonnes of timber move only because people pull. Young men grip the long ropes, drop their hips and attack the slope in one surge as the flute and the great drum drive the rhythm. Wheels scrape, dust and sweat hang in the air, and applause rolls back from the shopfronts. After dark the lanterns are lit and the same carvings take on an entirely different face.

The Massed Dance

On the middle day the floats gather in the plaza in front of Narita Station and the massed dance begins in the morning. The separate musical groups lock onto a single melody, matching dancers form a circle, and the whole plaza starts to beat in time. On the final evening the dance is offered in front of the Great Main Hall. With the hall rising above its broad stone steps, ten floats and hundreds of dancers face one another, and the low pulse of the drums bounces off the walls into the trees of the precinct.

The Hidden Buddha of the Okunoin

At the heart of the festival is the hidden image of Dainichi Nyorai enshrined in the Okunoin, a chamber behind the Great Main Hall that stays closed for most of the year. During Gion-e alone the doors are opened and visitors can walk into the dim recess to pray, and paper amulets are offered at the entrance. A portable shrine carrying a division of that Buddha's spirit is paraded through the old quarter of Narita, spending one night at a subsidiary shrine before returning. The observance began in the Edo period around a shrine dedicated to the Yudonosan deity, so behind all the spectacle there is still a religious spine.

Tips for Visiting

The slopes are the best of it, so the steepest stretch of the approach fills up early. If you want room to breathe, the first afternoon and the morning of the middle day are the easiest windows. The paving is uneven and the gradient is real, so wear shoes you have already broken in, and carry water because there is little shade at midday. At night the illuminated floats photograph beautifully, but pedestrian flow may be restricted to one direction.

Getting There

Both JR Narita Station and Keisei Narita Station sit at the top of the approach, and the entrance to Omotesando is a minute or two on foot; the temple's main gate is about ten minutes downhill. During the festival, traffic restrictions are in place on Omotesando and on the western approach, and some local bus routes are diverted. The whole area belongs to pedestrians and floats for those three days, so arriving by train is the simplest choice.

Practical Information

• Dates: The Friday, Saturday and Sunday closest to 7-9 July (the Gion-e observance begins on 7 July)
• Venue: The Omotesando approach, the Great Main Hall forecourt, and the plaza at JR Narita Station (Narita 1, Narita City, Chiba)
• Enquiries: Narita City Tourist Association
• Access: A short walk from JR Narita Station or Keisei Narita Station
• Parking: No dedicated car park; visitors are asked to use public transport
• Traffic restrictions: Omotesando and the western approach; some buses diverted
• Okunoin: Open only during Gion-e; Dainichi Nyorai paper amulet 500 yen
• Official website: https://www.nrtk.jp/enjoy/shikisaisai/gion-festival.html

* Dates, details and prices are subject to change. Please check the official website before you go.

(Sources: Narita City Tourist Association official website, Naritasan Shinshoji Temple official website)