Tokyo Sengakuji Gishisai Festival

Sengakuji, a Soto Zen temple in Takanawa, holds the graves of Lord Asano and the 47 Ronin who avenged him in December 1702 — the Chushingura story. Every year the temple marks the anniversary with its winter Gishisai, and in 2026 it runs from Saturday 12 to Monday 14 December.

Memorial prayers are said twice a day in the main hall, at 11:00 and 14:00, and the graveyard fills with visitors laying incense at each of the 47 stones; the temple asks for a small incense offering. The climax is the afternoon of the 14th, when a procession in Genroku-era dress walks in to the temple to lay its own tribute, arriving at about 15:30.

The grounds are free to enter and open from early morning into the evening; the small memorial museum beside the graves charges admission. Sengakuji is a short walk from Sengakuji Station on the Toei Asakusa Line, or from Shinagawa. Ako in Hyogo, the ronin’s home town, holds its own Gishisai the same day.