| Gion Festival (Gion Matsuri) | |
|---|---|
 Yoiyama during the Gion Festival | |
| Observed by | Kyoto |
| Type | Religious |
| Begins | 1 July |
| Ends | 31 July |
| Date | Month of July |
TheGion Festival (祇園祭,Gion Matsuri) is one of the largest and most famous festivals inJapan, taking place annually during the month of July inKyoto.[1] Many events take place in central Kyoto and at theYasaka Shrine, the festival's patron shrine, located in Kyoto's famousGion district, which gives the festival its name.[1] It is formally aShinto festival, and its original purposes were purification and pacification of disease-causing entities.[2] There are many ceremonies held during the festival, but it is best known for its twoYamaboko Junkō (山鉾巡行) processions offloats, which take place on July 17 and 24.[3]
The three nights leading up to each day of a procession are sequentially calledyoiyoiyoiyama (宵々々山),yoiyoiyama (宵々山), andyoiyama (宵山). During theseyoiyama evenings, Kyoto's downtown area is reserved for pedestrian traffic, and some traditional private houses near the floats open their entryways to the public, exhibiting family heirlooms in a custom known as the Folding Screen Festival (屏風祭り,Byōbu Matsuri). Additionally, the streets are lined with night stalls selling food such asyakitori (barbecued chicken on skewers),taiyaki,takoyaki (fried octopus balls),okonomiyaki, traditional Japanese sweets, and many other culinary delights.
The Gion Festival originated during an epidemic as part of a purification ritual (御霊会,goryo-e) to appease the gods thought to cause fire, floods, and earthquakes.[4][5] In 869, when people were suffering from a plague attributed to vengeful spirits,Emperor Seiwa ordered prayers toSusanoo-no-Mikoto, the god of theYasaka Shrine. Sixty-six stylized and decoratedhalberds, one for each of the traditional provinces of Japan, were prepared and erected at Shinsen-en, a garden in the south of the imperial palace, along withmikoshi (御輿, 'portable shrines') from Yasaka Shrine.[6] This practice was repeated wherever an outbreak of plague occurred. By the year 1000, the festival became an annual event and it has since seldom failed to take place. During the civilOnin War (under theAshikaga shogunate), central Kyoto was devastated, and the festival was halted for three decades in the late 15th and early 16th centuries.[3] Later in the 16th century, it was revived byOda Nobunaga.[3]
Over the centuries, some floats have been destroyed or otherwise lost, and in recent years several have been restored. Float neighborhood associations sometimes purchase antique tapestries to replace worn or destroyed ones, or commission replicas from industrial weavers in Kyoto, or design and commission new ones from the weavers of Kyoto's famous traditional Nishijin weaving district.[citation needed] When they are not in use, the floats and regalia are kept in special storehouses throughout the central district of Kyoto, or at Yasaka Shrine.
The festival serves as an important setting inYasunari Kawabata's novel,The Old Capital, in which he describes the Gion Festival as one of "the 'three great festivals' of the old capital", along with theFestival of Ages and theAoi Festival.[7]
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Following is a list of selected annual events in the Gion Festival.
Thefloats in theyoiyama parade are divided into two groups, the largerhoko ("halberd") and the smalleryama ("mountain"), and are collectively calledyamaboko.[1] The tenhoko recall the 66 halberds or spears used in the original purification ritual, and the 24yama carry life-sized figures ofShinto deities, Buddhistbodhisattvas, and other historic and cultural figures.[citation needed] All the floats are decorated with diverse tapestries, some made inNishijin, Kyoto's traditional textile-weaving district, while others have been imported from all over the world. In fact, thanks to a 1993 survey of the Gion Festival's imported textiles by a team of international textile conservationists and collectors, its unique textile collection is renowned amongst textile professionals worldwide.[8] Musicians sit in the floats playing drums and flutes.[4] The floats are pulled with ropes down the street and good luck favors are thrown from the floats to the crowd.[4]Yamahoko were listed on theImportant Intangible Folk Cultural Properties in 1979, and on theRepresentative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2009.
On the evening of July 17, hundreds of men carry Yasaka Shrine's resident deities around diverse parishioners' neighborhoods in portablemikoshi shrines to theotabisho, a temporary dwelling in central Kyoto.[9] It's believed the deities purify all the neighborhoods along the way. They reside at the otabisho for a week, between the two floats' processions.[9] On the 24th they are taken back to the Yasaka Shrine to their permanent dwelling.[9] On the way back to the shrine, the procession stops at Shinsen-en, the original site of the first rituals in the year 869, the former Imperial garden.
Each year, the neighborhood associations which maintain the floats draw lots in early July. This lottery determines the order in which the floats will appear in the July 17 and 24 processions. These lots are presented in a special ceremony at the commence of the processions, during which the Mayor of Kyoto dons the robes of a magistrate.
The Naginata Hoko depicts achigo wearing a ceremonial robe and wearing a golden phoenix, chosen as the sacred page of a deity from among merchant houses in Kyoto. After several weeks of special ablution ceremonies, he lives in isolation from the effects of contamination (such as inappropriate food and the presence of women) and is not allowed to touch the ground, so he is placed in a wagon. At the start of theyamahoko on July 17, thechigo cuts the shimenawa with a swing of his sword.
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