In Tokyo, participants in the Fukagawa Hachiman Festival were doused with water
On August 16, the Fukagawa Hachiman Matsuri festival took place in eastern Tokyo, during which crowds doused people carrying portable shrines—mikoshi—with water. They used buckets, hoses, and water guns for this purpose.
Footage released by Euronews shows crowds dousing procession participants while firefighters spray them with water from hoses. The festival’s main procession featured 54 mikoshi.
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The portable shrines were carried along an eight-kilometer route. About 25,000 people took part in the procession. The festival is held once every three years.
The Fukagawa Hachiman Matsuri dates back to 1642, when Tokyo was still known as Edo. According to participants, preparations for the event take years and bring together people from different social backgrounds. The festival’s history also includes a tragedy: in 1807, the Eitai Bridge collapsed under the weight of the crowd watching the procession, killing nearly 1,500 people.
