Bunkyo Chrysanthemum Festival at Yushima Tenmangu

Yushima Tenmangu enshrines Sugawara no Michizane, revered as the deity of learning, and in exam season its grounds fill with votive plaques praying for success. Its chrysanthemum festival is counted among Bunkyo ward's five great flower festivals and is held in the precincts each year from November 1 to 23. Around two thousand plants are brought in and shown in an unusually wide range of styles: chrysanthemum dolls that stage scenes from classical tales, ogatsukuri specimens trained so that a single root bears hundreds of blooms, okengai cascades that spill downward as if from a cliff, and bontei miniature landscapes built from small-flowered varieties. Set against the shrine buildings in the middle of the city, the display carries on a tradition of chrysanthemum craft that reaches back to the Edo period. The precincts open early in the morning during the festival, and many visitors stop by on the way to work or during a walk.