Jidai Matsuri

Jidai Matsuri (Festival of the Ages)

October 22

Jidai Matsuri is one of the three great festivals of Kyoto, Japan, and also one of the more recent, commemorating the founding of the city as capital in the year 794. A procession of more than 2,000 picturesquely costumed people depict the epochs or ages in Kyoto's history. They parade from the Imperial Palace to the Heian Shrine, which was built in the 18th century as a dedication to the emperors who established Kyoto (then called Heian-kyo) as the capital. The capital was moved in 1868 to Tokyo, and the festival stems from that time. Among the paraders is one representing Gen. Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a patron of the arts under whom Kyoto flourished. He reunified the country after a period of civil war in the Azuchi-Momoyama Period (1573-1600). Wearing full armor, he reenacts an official visit to the emperor.
See also Aoi Matsuri and Gion 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/en/index-e.html
Kyoto Prefectural Representative Office
1221 Avenue of the Americas
McGraw-Hill Bldg., 42nd Fl.
New York, NY 10020
212-997-6466; fax: 212-302-1581
www.pref.kyoto.jp

SOURCES:
AnnivHol-2000, p. 176
JapanFest-1965, p. 37

Celebration day: Oct 22