Kawagoe Hikawa Shrine Enmusubi Wind Chime Festival

The Kawagoe Hikawa Shrine Enmusubi Wind Chime Festival is an annual summer festival taking place on the outskirts of Kawagoe in Saitama. The event has been running since 2014 and draws an annual attendance of around 100,000 over its roughly 3-month duration.

What to expect

Wind chimes. Tons of them. Around 2,100. The roughly 1,500-year-old Hikawa Shrine grounds are broken into several different areas to traverse. There’s the Wind Chime Corridor that’s adorned with chimes of all shapes, sizes, and sounds. All of the chimes are handmade by various artisans and donated to the temple. You can buy tanzaku, little paper strips to write your wishes on and attach them to chimes throughout the corridor.

There’s also the River of Light. The shrine grounds are said to have been discovered by following a glowing river, and as such, the stream passing through the temple grounds will be illuminated every night, coinciding with the Tanabata star festival that occurs around the same time of year.

You may also come across clouds floating around the festival. The shrine has associations with fortune-bringing clouds, and you’ll be glad to stumble across one. With the festival running through peak summer, the fine mist is sure to cool you down and maybe even bring you some luck. There will also be wind chimes for sale, so you can take a piece of the event home with you.

Schedule

The festival starts at 9 a.m. and finishes at 8 p.m. each day. The shrine will be illuminated after dark, and the River of Light will light up from 6:30 p.m. until 8 p.m. each night. The clouds will appear at various times depending on the weather and other events happening at the shrine. You’ll be able to buy tanzaku and other charms until 7 p.m. on weekdays or 7:30 p.m. on weekends and public holidays.

Tips

The festival is quite popular, so it’s recommended to head there on a weekday or early if it’s a weekend. Kawagoe is known as Little Edo, so it’s worth taking a walk around the nearby area and heading to other spots like Penny Candy Alley and the nearby shopping district.