Gion Matsuri
Last weekend was Gion Matsuri - one of the great festivals of Kyoto. According to Ohta-san, Gion Matsuri originated a millennium ago when, during a time of plague, the townsfolk of Kyoto were ordered to stage a kami-appeasing procession. Indeed, the name of the festival, "Gion", refers not to the famous entertainment quarter of the city, but to the location of Yasaka Shrine, one of the big Kyoto shrines of Shintoism. While the more salient events of the festival are spread over several weeks, the Big Day is the Yamaboko (=yama+hoko) parade on the 17th of July, and the few days that immediately precede it.
The yama and the hoko can best be described as 'floats'. Yama are smaller, man-portable ones, while hoko are truly huge, wheeled ones that get pulled by squads of swarthy young men. During the week prior to the parade the floats are taken out of storage and laboriously assembled by gangs of men (no women allowed!).
A hoko being assembled. This street will remain blocked for several days
The hoko are held together exclusively by rope
A hoko under construction on Shijo-dori, one of the main thoroughfares of the city. When a tradition has been around for a millennium, who cares if you block a lane of traffic for five or six days...
On my way home from my shime+okedo class I came across this one. The men up on the hoko's platform were practicing playing and singing, getting ready for the parade just a few days away
People from all over Japan come to Kyoto just for Gion Matsuri, with the population of the city swelling by several hundred thousand for the event. This year Gion Matsuri was to coincide with a long weekend, which - everyone assured me - meant that it was going to be busier than ever. On the other hand, it was a very very very rainy weekend, which worked somewhat to (ahem) dampen the crowds. Rain or no rain, I spent both Sunday and Monday taking in the sights and sounds with local and soon-to-be-local friends Hideyo, Miki, and Ted.
Sunday:
Crowds on a side street, with a hoko parked in the distance
At Yasaka shrine in the rain
On Shijo-dori at night
A community group in front of Minamiza Theatre in Gion...
and a lion dancing further up the street
Monday:
Sunday was the day of the Yamaboko parade proper. We have strategically positioned ourselves at a street corner, where the floats had to do a a 90-degree turn. Now, the wheels on the large floats don't pivot side-to-side, which means that the corners are the most interesting places to watch the parade: this is where the 10-ton hoko are bodily dragged through a 90-degree turn by muscle power alone.
It rained heavily the whole day...
Here comes a float!
The hoko's top, where the musicians sit
a detail of the hoko
Getting ready to turn...
and here they go!
Gion Matsuri: Getting wet in the rain followed by a hot chai latte at a Staba... Yukata-clad girls texting friends on their cell-phones... Street vendors selling shawarmas and ice-cold beer... And wheels that don't pivot for a thousand years. A millennium of tradition in the 21st century.
A millennium of tradition in the 21st century
The yama and the hoko can best be described as 'floats'. Yama are smaller, man-portable ones, while hoko are truly huge, wheeled ones that get pulled by squads of swarthy young men. During the week prior to the parade the floats are taken out of storage and laboriously assembled by gangs of men (no women allowed!).
People from all over Japan come to Kyoto just for Gion Matsuri, with the population of the city swelling by several hundred thousand for the event. This year Gion Matsuri was to coincide with a long weekend, which - everyone assured me - meant that it was going to be busier than ever. On the other hand, it was a very very very rainy weekend, which worked somewhat to (ahem) dampen the crowds. Rain or no rain, I spent both Sunday and Monday taking in the sights and sounds with local and soon-to-be-local friends Hideyo, Miki, and Ted.
Sunday:
Monday:
Sunday was the day of the Yamaboko parade proper. We have strategically positioned ourselves at a street corner, where the floats had to do a a 90-degree turn. Now, the wheels on the large floats don't pivot side-to-side, which means that the corners are the most interesting places to watch the parade: this is where the 10-ton hoko are bodily dragged through a 90-degree turn by muscle power alone.
Gion Matsuri: Getting wet in the rain followed by a hot chai latte at a Staba... Yukata-clad girls texting friends on their cell-phones... Street vendors selling shawarmas and ice-cold beer... And wheels that don't pivot for a thousand years. A millennium of tradition in the 21st century.
posted by Marcin at Thursday, July 20, 2006
3 Comments:
It has been very enjoyable to see the photos and interesting to read your texts. Love your writing style and your Gaijin point of views, which we local tend to neglect; ex Doors.
Marcin, can you please comment about the tapestry or painting on the float, that didn't look Japanese at all.
Where did it come from into this very Japanese tradition?
Leila
>Marcin, can you please comment about the
>tapestry or painting on the float, that
>didn't look Japanese at all.
>Where did it come from into this very
>Japanese tradition?
Good point!
Many of these came from foreign countries. Some of them were tapestry coming during the period of the 16th century from Europe, and some are new.
Interestingly, even during the Edo era (1603-1868), when Japan was closed to foreign countries, except for Holland, town people in Kyoto liked to have such tapestry.
A famous tapestry paints a scene of Trojan war.
Decorations at the top of the floats mainly come from old Chinese episodes, and stories in Japan.
>the floats were called daishi - is that just
>another name for the same thing?
Yes, I think so.
'dashi' (not daishi) seems to be rather general name.
In Gion Matsuri, we call it Yama-boko.
Yama is a small one, and Hoko (Boko) is a large and tall one,
although this is not exact.
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