Gion Festival, Kyoto

A spectacular month-long event, the Gion Festival fills the ancient capital’s streets with thousands of revelers each year. One of the largest festivals in the country, it originated at Kyoto’s Yasaka Shrine during an epidemic and sees spectacular processions, lantern receptions and purification ceremonies take place across 31 days. Visitors can experience a different element daily, with two opportunities to see the world-famous float processions.

Gion Festival, Kyoto

When Japan was struck by a plague in the year 869, Emperor Seiwa of Kyoto ordered prayers and ceremonies to appease the vengeful spirits. Resurrected whenever a plague returned, the festival eventually became an annual occurrence from the year 970. While it retained its purification purpose, the festival also became an opportunity for wealthy local merchants to flaunt their success, leading to the festival developing a grand display of floats. Bringing items from their travels abroad, the floats were often decorated with expensive embroidery and artwork from distant lands. Today, with many preserved floats painstakingly restored, the original tapestries are repaired or replaced by specialists from the city’s Nishijin weaving district.

Called Yamahoko, the floats represented the sixty-six hoko (spears) used in the original festival: one for each province in Japan at the time. Now, however, there are 34 floats to represent the towns in Shimogyo and Nakagyo districts and each is uniquely decorated. After their purification on the 10th, visitors can watch their construction from July 10th–14th, with trial-runs on the 12th and 13th. There are ten hoko floats, which are larger and bear the spears, while the 24 smaller yama floats have life-sized religious and historic figures. Pulled through the streets by local teams, the floats have musicians seated aboard. The two main processions (Yamahoko Junko) take place on the 17th and 24th of July, with the preceding three days of each hosting evening festivities, known as yoiyoiyoi-yama, yoiyoi-yama and yoi-yama in the Shijo-Karasuma area. Around two-thirds of the floats take part in the first event on the 17th, with the remainder joining the second. The highlight of the larger display for many is witnessing the sacred chigo child cutting the rope to signal the start of the procession. Chosen each year from the city’s most prestigious families, the chigo are considered to be the vessel of the gods and cannot touch the ground following their blessing at Yasaka Shrine on July 13th.

Yasaka Shrine, Kyoto(Google Maps)

Alongside the show-stealing processions, the festival has a number of unique events offering an insight into the revered traditions of the ancient city. On July 14th–16th, local well-to-do families open their doors to display valuable art and heirlooms for the Byobu (Folding Screen) Festival. Fans of noh theater can watch the Iwami Kagura performances on Yasaka Shrine’s dedicated stage on the 16th, where decorative masks and elaborate costumes lend themselves to tales of battle between gods and demons. For a more tranquil display, the Hanagasa Junko (Flower Umbrella Parade) involves around 1,000 people in floral headdresses, including Geiko and Maiko, walking through Gion to perform at Yasaka Shrine. The festival comes to a close with a purification ceremony on the 31st, with floats passing through a reed ring as they are blessed, with the public also allowed to follow through afterward.

Brining Kyoto’s traditions and historic past to the modern-day streets, the Gion Festival is an incredible time to visit an already impressive city. Snack on Chigo Mochi—a rice cake made with sweet white miso and sprinkled with powdered, freeze-dried mochi—as you watch the parades and mingle with locals during the evening celebrations. Be sure to explore the smaller events alongside the awe-inspiring parades and absorb the centuries-old experience of the Gion Festival for yourself.

For more details, contact DMC Japan to discuss ideas, locations and rates.
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