Next stop your bike in front of Tomioka Hachiman Shrine.
Inside you will see worshipers, office workers, and small children whose appearance indicates they are from a local school.
You should check out the main hall, but more importantly you should continue to the back right of the shrine to a small path. On this path is an over three meter stone monument with the Chinese characters that read “Yokozuna-Rikishi-Zo”, meaning statue of a sumo champions.
On both sides of this stone monument are two giant like sumo wrestlers. Beside the statue do you think the hand-like shape is the hand of a sumo champion?
During the Edo period Sumo was actually called “fund raising sumo” because the purpose of the competition was to raise funds to cover the costs of shrine and temple repair. Tomioka Hachiman Shrine was one such place that “fund raising sumo” was carried out. Unemployed samurai and other people of superior athletic ability came to this place to seek money and fame. It was at this time that the first professional sumo groups were formed. Fukagawa soon became the center of sumo.
Even now when new sumo champions are crowned, they go to worship at the Tomioka Hachiman Shrine. When you are crowned a sumo champion there is a ceremony to carve their names on the statue.
Try to take a walk around the area.
Continuing from the statue of sumo champions, is the “Mikoshi” or portable shrines that are carried around in festivals. There is also a statue of Tadataka Inou, who was the first person to create a map of Japan through modern surveying techniques.
In order to tell the history and show the treasures of the place, the Tomioka Hachiman data library exists. Here can see old style paintings and pictures which portray past festivals. Excavated pieces also line the museum, and a number of spectacular collections make a visit to the place worth while.
While remembering the cultural air of the place, take a bow of thanks in front of the shrine and return to the Mozennakachou main street.
The Tomioka Hachiman Shrine and Hachiman Festival has enthralled the people of this area since the Edo period. The festival is only carried out in full once every three years, in the middle of August for two days. Around 120 both large and small “Mikoshi” or portable shrines are paraded around. During the water festival, people on the roadside hold buckets and small cups to throw water on those who are carrying the shrines.
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Address: Tokyo, Koto-Ku Tomioka 1-20-3
URL:http://www.tomiokahachimangu.or.jp/
☎︎ 03-3642-1315
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