Chichibu night festival (Chichibu Yomatsuri), which is in the list of UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, is the annual festival of this shrine. Chichibu Shrine is said to be one of the oldest ones in the Greater Tokyo Metropolitan area, because the history of it appears in an ancient document in 878. Existing main building in the picture was dedicated by Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate system, in 1652, so it still retains an original architectural style of those years. The walls of Honden, the main building, and Haiden, the hall of worship, are decorated with carvings of tigers, dragons and other animals. These carvings are the masterpieces of Hidari Jingoro, a legendary sculptor.
Licensed tour guide, travel consultant,
Masahisa Takaki.
