Gion Festival
from the series Thirty Views of Kyoto
by Tokuriki Tomikichirō, c. 1933-39
Gion Festival
Gion Matsuri is an annual festival of the Yasaka Shrine which begins July 1 and continues through July 31. During this period, a series of Shinto rituals and events take place at Yasaka Shrine and others locations in Kyoto. Yasaka Shrine was originally named Gion-sha and is the head shrine of the thousands of Gion-sha shrines in Japan.
The Gion Matsuri was started in 869 A.D when a bad plague spread in Kyoto. In the first festival, young men carried numbers of wooden floats as a divine intervention to stop the plague. The plague soon ended, and this event became a popular festival. The current form of the decorated floats appeared in the festival during the Edo period.
Yamahoko-junko is the procession of colorful floats through downtown Kyoto. The floats are pulled through the streets by teams of men dressed in traditional costumes.
There are two kinds of floats: yama and hoko. Yama are smaller floats (weight: 1.2 ton - 1.6 ton, height: about 6m) and carried by people on their shoulders. Hoko are giant floats (weight: 4.8 ton - 12 ton, height: about 25m) on large wooden wheels and pulled by people. There are 32 floats in the procession: 25 yama floats and 7 hoko floats.
This print original issue is published by Uchida Woodblock Printing Company in the 1930s as part of the series Thirty Views of Kyoto. Uchida mounted these prints on a display board with Tokuriki’s authentication seal on the reverse. These square format prints on board were part of a premium set of designs sold originally in a handmade box. Uchida reissued this print after World War II as part of the series Twelve Months of Kyoto (Kyo-meisho junikagetsu).
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