Gion Matsuri

Gion Matsuri

July 17

Gion Matsuri is the best-known festival in Japan and the biggest in Kyoto. It began in the year 869 when hundreds of people died in an epidemic that swept through Kyoto. The head priest of the Gion Shrine, now called the Yasaka Shrine, mounted 66 spears on a portable shrine, took it to the emperor's garden, and the pestilence ended. In gratitude to the gods, the priest led a procession in the streets. Except for the period of the Onin War (1467-77), which destroyed the city, the procession has been held ever since.
There are events related to the festival throughout July but the main event is the parade of elaborate, carefully preserved floats on July 17. There are 29 hoko ("spears") floats and 22 smaller yama ("mountains") floats. The immense hoko weigh as much as 10 tons and can be 30 feet tall; they look like wonderfully ornate towers on wheels. They are decorated with Chinese and Japanese paintings and even with French Gobelin tapestries imported during the 17th and 18th centuries. Just under their lacquered roofs musicians play flutes and drums. From the rooftops of the floats two men toss straw good-luck favors to the crowds. The hoko roll slowly on their big wooden wheels, pulled with ropes by parade participants.
Yama floats weigh only about a ton, and are carried on long poles by teams of men. Life-sized dolls on platforms atop each float represent characters in the story the float depicts.
The towns of Hakata (Fukuoka Prefecture), Narita (Chiba Prefecture), and Takayama (Gifu Prefecture) have imitated the Kyoto celebration and now have their own "Gion" festivals.
See also Aoi Matsuri; Hakata Gion Yamagasa; Jidai Matsuri

CONTACTS:
Japan Information Network, Japan Center for Intercultural Communications
2-7-7 Hirakawacho
Chiyodaku
Tokyo, 102-0093 Japan
81-3-3263-5041; fax: 81-3-3230-4107
home.jcic.or.jp

SOURCES:
AnnivHol-2000, p. 119
BkHolWrld-1986, Jul 17
JapanFest-1965, p. 44

Celebration day: Jul 17