The 21st Shinjuku Eisa Festival

Tokyo
Sightseeing

June 19, 2024

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The festival will be held on Saturday, July 27, 2024! What is Shinjuku Eisa Festival?

The sounds of Okinawa echo through the streets of Shinjuku

The Shinjuku Eisa Festival is the largest eisa event in the Kanto region, attracting more than 1 million visitors to the Shinjuku Boulevard venue. It all started in 2001, when an Okinawan eisa team was invited to perform eisa in some areas of Shinjuku's shopping district during the Shinjuku Festival for its "lively dance. Eisa is a traditional Okinawan Buddhist prayer dance to pray for good health and safety during the Bon Festival. The executives of the four shopping district promotion associations who saw this event agreed that eisa was the most appropriate dance for Shinjuku, and as a result, the event has been held every year as a united event of all the associations in Shinjuku.

A variety of unique teams will be performing!

About 20 groups participate in the event each year. Every team is unique, with traditional eisa as well as newly created ones! It is also fun to compare the dances of the different groups.

Basic knowledge of Eisa that you can enjoy more if you know

The basic formation of eisa is a circular dance with a sanshin player or taiko drummer at the center, who dances around the drummer or sanshin player. In recent years, there have been an increasing number of groups that vary their formation.

Basically, eisa is performed by dozens of men and women. The roles of the dancers include the "jikata/jiutei" who play the sanshin and sing, the "hatagashira" who stands at the front of the group holding a 3- to 4-meter-high flag and dances, the "teodori", a gorgeous and graceful dance performed by the women, and the "kyotaro" ( The "kyotaro," or "chondara," with its white painted face and strange makeup, is in charge of keeping the line in order.

Information on the festival in 2024

The event will be held on Saturday, July 27, 2024, from 12:00 to 20:00 (with light rain)

[Location]
All around the East and West Exits of JR Shinjuku Station
(Daytime: 4 venues on Shinjuku Main Street / Nighttime: 6 venues on East and West sides of JR Shinjuku Station)

*Schedule is subject to change.

There will be no bleachers, so all spectating will be done along the streets. Please enjoy watching the festival while sharing the space with other spectators. There will also be events related to the Eisa Festival. For details, please visit the Shinjuku Eisa Festival official website.

Shinjuku Eisa Festival official website is here:

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Access

It takes about 1-10 minutes on foot from the East or West Exit of JR Shinjuku Station to each venue.

The daytime performance will be held mainly on Shinjuku Boulevard, but the nighttime performances will be held at various locations. Please check the performance map and schedule.

●Image provided by

Shinjuku Eisa Festival Management Office

*The contents and services in this article are subject to change.

*All images are for reference only.

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