21st Hino Shinsengumi Festival to be held in Tokyo

This month, samurai fans from around the country will be gathering in Hino City for a trip through time back to Bakumatsu Japan, the era when Japan’s last samurai, a force known as the Shinsengumi, once policed the streets of Kyoto.

While many associate the Shinsengumi with the old capital as a result, the fearsome unit’s hometown is actually right here in Tokyo. On the weekend of May 12-13, the 21st Hino Shinsengumi Festival will be taking place in Tokyo’s Hino City, where the historic force’s leaders learned the way of the sword some 150 years ago.

The two-day festival celebrates the Shinsengumi’s Tokyo roots with a Shinsengumi look-alike contest at the Takahata Fudo-son temple on Saturday and a massive parade through the city on Sunday. The parade will feature over 400 people clad in the Shinsengumi’s distinctive blue uniform, which attracted 45,000 visitors last year.

Combined with local groups and students dressed in Edo period attire, the event will look and feel like a time slip back to the turbulent days of Bakumatsu Japan, with plenty of photo opportunities. In addition to the parade, there will also be swordplay demonstrations and mock sword fights, along with mikoshi shrines and performances of traditional Japanese ohayashi music.

For a detailed itinerary of festival events and locations, check the festival’s English web page at http://makoto.shinsenhino.com/archives/english/180427210417.php.

© Japan Today