Kagurazaka Street Stage O-edo Tour 2019　website

Event Overview

Kagurazaka Street Stage O-edo Tour 2019

Date / Time
Eve: May 11th (Sat) 2019, around 15:00-19:40
Main Festival: May 12th (Sun) 2019, around 11:30-18:30
*Both festivals will be carried out rain or shine but will be cancelled in the case of a stormy weather

Location
Kagurazaka area (Bishamonten Zenkoku-ji Temple, Akagi-jinja Shrine, Tokyo Kagurazaka Association / Kenban, Kagurazaka Avenue and other smaller streets in the area, local historic sites, THEGLEE, Enkaen, Kagurazakamonogatari and more)

Admission
Free (Ozashiki Asobi is subject to fees and requires prior reservations)

Transforming the Entire Town of Kagurazaka into a Stage to Welcome You to Enjoy Japan’s Various Traditional Performing Arts

Arts Council Tokyo (Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture) and NPO Ikimachi Club will turn the entire town of Kagurazaka, where tradition meets innovation, into a stage to host Kagurazaka Street Stage O-edo Tour 2019 on May 11th (Sat) ‹Eve› & 12th (Sun) ‹Main Festival›.

Kagurazaka Street Stage O-edo Tour 2019 offers a friendly environment where guests from different generations and countries can see, hear and touch Japan’s symbolic traditional performing arts as well as the charm of Kagurazaka and its remaining atmosphere of the Edo Period. This 7th annual festival will be held in the perfect strolling weather of May instead of the usual November. Local residents and volunteers will work together as Street Stage Concierge and once again create a festival where the town and its people become one.

Kagurazaka is gaining popularity as a town where the Edo-Tokyo culture and the sophisticated atmosphere of Paris unite and live in harmony. New and experienced leading artists representing Kagurazaka in various genres of traditional performing arts will gather for this festival. In addition to Kagurazaka’s symbolic street-strolling music performance called Shinnai Nagashi and Experiencing Ozashiki Asobi, all kinds of performances including Akagi-jinja Shrine’s new program Traditional Song and Dance Live can be enjoyed in the streets, shrines, temples and parks.

This 2-day festival will be a perfect opportunity for you to enjoy Japan’s various performing arts in the charming streets of Kagurazaka where traditional culture lives on. With our goal of promoting traditional performing arts and bringing greater prosperity to the town of Kagurazaka, we welcome you all to this unique event that now draws attention from all over the country.

Charms of Kagurazaka

Unlike the rest of Tokyo that has been dramatically redeveloped, the town of Kagurazaka and its stone-paved back alleys mostly remain what they looked like in the Edo Period. The rise of its Geisha district brought to Kagurazaka dedicated masters of performing arts who established training houses here to pass on the traditions.

In the prewar time, Kagurazaka had many theaters where the arts of storytelling were actively practiced. After the war, the French started finding residence in this neighborhood that somewhat reminded them of Paris, whose culture united with that of the Japanese in harmony and created the unique atmosphere of Kagurazaka.

In recent years, the leading local NPO Ikimachi Club has been working with young volunteer groups, local store associations, corporations and shop owners to host numerous events in different sizes mainly focusing on traditional performing arts. Kagurazaka is now gaining worldwide attention as a town rich in cultural heritages.mainly focusing on traditional performing arts. Kagurazaka is now gaining worldwide attention as a town rich in cultural heritages.