Warner Bros./DC Comics Mikoshi at Tokyo Comic Con 2018

A DC Comics mikoshi featuring Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and The Flash? That’s just the sort of cultural fusion that takes place at Tokyo Comic Con 

Mikoshi are portable shrines used to transport Shinto deities. During a matsuri (Japanese festival) involving a mikoshi, people carry the mikoshi around the neighborhoods that worship at the shrine. At various points in the parade the mikoshi-carriers wave the shrine from side to side as a show of strength, to entertain the god inside and to bring blessings on those around.

The Warner Brothers stand at Tokyo Comic Con 2018 fused some Japanese tradition with modern pop culture with the entrance to the stand marked by a torii, more commonly seen as the entrance to a shinto shrine.

Torii gate marking the entrance to the Warner Brothers stand at Tokyo Comic Con 2018

They also had a mikoshi decorated with figures (effigies?) of DC Comic characters such as Batman, The Flash and more. Some people describe Marvel and DC Comics as modern mythology, so it almost seems fitting!

DC Comics Mikoshi at Tokyo Comic Con 2018

In true matsuri fashion, the DC Comics mikoshi was paraded around the show floor on the afternoon of Saturday 1 December 2018 and Maction Planet was there to join in the fun and capture the action!

If you want to compare this to more traditional mikoshi carrying, then check out this footage from the Maction Planet YouTube channel of the 45th Kichijoji Aki Matsuri from September 2017.

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