KYOTO, Japan Welcome to Kyoto during the Gion Festival, where
thousands of young women in kimonos walk around with their
geisha-style wooden shoes and body-pierced boyfriends. Where ornate
floats decorated with trees and priceless tapestries parade by the
city’s Starbucks. Where you can watch ancient ritual dances in
front of bright pink chocolate-covered-banana-on-a-stick snack
stands. Kyoto’s big party presents a fascinating mix of the old and
new.
The festival called Gion Matsuri in Japanese is said to have
begun in 869, when a disease-riddled Japan tried to appease the
angry gods with prayers and by building 66 spears, one for each of
Japan’s provinces. Kyoto was soon plague-free, and this ritual was
resurrected whenever the gods afflicted Kyoto with disease. In 970,
the Gion Festival became an annual event, interrupted by war for 10
years in the Middle Ages.
Today, just like almost 1,100 years ago, the Gion Festival is
centered at the Yasaka Shrine, a very beautiful Shinto shrine and
home to the helpful god of medicine in the eastern part of
Kyoto.
Throughout July, events related to the festival take place all
over Kyoto, but the really exciting festivities happen over three
days toward the end of the festival. This is when 500,000 people
come into Kyoto to party like it’s 869 (without the nasty plague)
and to see the parade of incredibly ornate floats 32 in all,
carrying musicians and pulled by teams of people dressed in
traditional costumes.
On July 15, the festival kicks into high gear when the floats
are brought out into the streets. From then until the parade, which
takes place on July 17, the city comes alive with everything from
traditional performances to riverside drinking to geisha-spotting
and more. Also, Kyoto’s homes are opened up during festival time so
visitors may admire traditional artwork.
But if the Gion Festival is the busiest and wildest time to
visit Kyoto, it is by no means the only time of year you’re going
to run into the confluence of the traditional with the modern.
Kyoto which was Japan’s capital for nearly 1,100 years, from 784
until 1868 is still considered to be Japan’s cultural center. Home
not only to a top-notch university, countless high-rises and an
estimable subway system, Kyoto is also the last Japanese city to
have traditional wooden architecture (the rest of the wooden
buildings in Japan’s urban areas were destroyed in World War II).
Kyoto is also the place to experience Japanese traditions, like
kabuki theater, tea ceremonies and ryoken (traditional Japanese
guesthouses). Kyoto is one of last places in Japan to have geishas
as well.
Kyoto is also superb for sightseeing, hiking and enjoying
Japanese culture. Among Kyoto’s many hundreds of temples and
shrines are Nanzen-ji Temple, the headquarters of the Rinzai school
of zen, where monks pray under a waterfall, and around which are
some very lovely hiking trails. The Golden Pavilion called
Kinkaku-ji (or more formally Rokuon-ji) in Japanese is an
astonishing gold-leaf covered temple set by the edge of a lake. The
original temple, built in 1393, burned down in 1950 and rebuilt in
1955. The 1955 rendering of the temple is actually more closely in
tune with the designer’s original intention; it is fully covered in
gold leaf, while the 1393 version of the temple had only its
third-floor ceiling covered.
Kyoto has thousands of temples and shrines, three castles, and
roughly one-quarter of all Japan’s national treasures. If you’re
starting to think that Kyoto’s offerings are incredibly vast,
you’re right. For a first visit to Kyoto, it might be best to
recommend a wonderful service provided by the Japan National
Tourist Organization clients arrange for free English-speaking
guides to take them around Kyoto (or any other Japanese city). All
they have to do is cover the guide’s admissions, food and
transportation costs for the duration of the tour, and they’ll help
clients sort temples from tea ceremonies.
Japan National Tourist Organization: www.jnto.go.jp
