An Overview of Japan’s Most Famous Festival
Shining as the best-known festival in Japan, the Gion Festival takes place every year over the whole month of July. It’s a testimony to the community spirit of downtown Kyotoites that this annual festival has taken place almost continuously since it started in the year 869.
While consisting of an array of events, the most visually stunning are the two grand processions of floats (Yamaboko Junko) on July 17th and 24th. The procession won recognition as a cultural World Heritage event by UNESCO in 2009.
During the days leading up to the processions, visitors can watch the gigantic float structures being built and adorned with treasures. Wandering the streets rewards us with cultural riches displayed at the floats and in private homes.
The three nights before the processions (called yoiyama) offer diverse feasts for the senses, including phenomenal people watching. We can enjoy getting lost in the crowds amidst the otherworldly music, boisterous festival street life and intriguing food stalls.
The festival originated with a ritual in the year 869, to placate angry spirits believed to be casting pestilence upon the Kyoto populace. Later that morphed into an annual ritual of processions to please nearby Yasaka Shrine’s residing deities, and to request purification of any harmful energy for the year.
Fast-forward to the 20th century, and modern hygiene relieved Kyotoites of the illnesses related to its mid-summer rainy season. However, the torrential rains continue to fall every July, reminding us of the festival’s raison-d’etre. When festival-goers feel oppressed by the heat and humidity or occasionally get caught in a downpour, what can we do, other than step into a dry and cool shopfront, and pray for relief?
Weather doesn’t deter many. More than a million visitors a year testify to the spectacular nature of the Gion Festival.
The Floats
The word yamaboko refers to the two kinds of floats featured in the festival: 10 gigantic hoko and 23 smaller yama. It’s impossible to remain unimpressed by the gargantuan hoko, which are up to 25 meters tall (including the spares, they rival a 8-storey building), weigh up to 12 tons, and are pulled on wheels by tens of heaving men.
Incredibly, they consist of simple timbers lashed together with beautifully symmetrical lengths of rope. Fit with gigantic wheels and decorated with priceless artistic ornaments collected over centuries, and voila! Yamaboko have been called “moving museums,” and represent a globally unique collection of textiles and other artwork, viewable close up and with no glass between you.
Though the hoko are stupendous, size isn’t everything. The yama are associated with more residential neighborhoods. Here one may enjoy the traditional convivial feeling of the festival from decades gone by, away from the madding crowds. Not long ago it was a neighborhood affair, when people walked a few blocks to sip tea and visit with friends. Exploring the back streets and festival limits, you can still relish in this laid-back atmosphere.
Each yama is dedicated to a unique deity or deities – from a Zen master, to warrior monks, to the bodhisattva of compassion. The original deities’ spirits are believed to reside in their sculpted likenesses, artistic masterpieces in their own right, and are revered during the festival in local, sometimes temporary shrines. The traditional architecture is itself exemplary.
While the July 17 procession features 23 yama and nine of the ten hoko, the July 24 procession stars 10 yama and the recently re-introduced Great Ship Hoko. The later part of the festival is generally smaller, quieter and more intimate. The earlier part is an intense sensory extravaganza that you will never forget.
The only times the annual festival has been interrupted since 869 were during major fires and major wars, when the local neighborhoods were razed, the local population decimated or scattered.
Each time the local neighborhoods have joined together to bring the festival back to life, making it a major source of civic pride.
Nowadays challenges to the festival include the changing urban landscape, skyrocketing real estate prices, rapid residential population overturn, and even the touristic turn the festival’s taken.
After lasting for 1100 years on the basis of community cohesion and cultural and spiritual devotion, can these qualities adapt to modern life? With so many visitors, how might festival attendance help ensure its perpetuation? Gion Festival presents a unique sustainability challenge.
Yasaka Shrine, Geisha and Kimono
The “Gion” in “Gion Festival” is a neighborhood known for its geisha courtesans*. This Gion area grew up around the Yasaka Shrine, the residence of the deities to whom the Gion Festival is dedicated. Like the Gion Festival itself, Yasaka Shrine has been a popular pilgrimage destination for more than a millennium.
Tea shops sprung up in the Gion neighborhood to serve the pilgrims, entertainers lightened their spirits, and refinement of the entertainment eventually led to the geisha culture. The links between geisha, Yasaka Shrine, and the Gion Festival continue today.
Meanwhile, nearby – on the other side of the Kamo River from the shrine and geisha – the center of Japan’s kimono industry thrived.
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