More Good News: Taka Yama Returns for Gion Festival 2022 | The Gion Festival

Gion Festival 2022: Green Light! Taka Yama Restoration a Highlight Kyoto’s Gion Festival 2022 returns in July! The Gion Festival Floats Association has named that it would like the festival to happen “in as close to its usual form as possible.” But there will of course be safety measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. So what this year’s festival will be like still remains somewhat fluid.

In 2020 and 2021 the festival was dramatically altered and scaled back due to the coronavirus pandemic. Fears that festival crowds would increase coronavirus contagion led to an emphasis on prevention and safety instead. Normal years saw grand processions of yamaboko floats and portable mikoshi shrines on July 17 and 24. Instead, representatives of festival floats and the Yasaka Shrine (the Gion Festival’s official patron shrine) walked in procession with sacred sakaki leaves representing festival deities.

The Gion Festival floats procession was last cancelled in 1962. At that time Hankyu railway was constructing a train underground on the floats’ main route. Before that, the festival was dramatically scaled down in 1943-1946, because U.S. Occupation forces’ rules against public gatherings.

The government lifting of COVID-19 pre-emergency measures in Kyoto until March 21 helped spark the green light for this years’ yamaboko floats’ processions. In addition, many float patrons have been advocating in favor of the processions, since their historical purpose was to ward away epidemics.

What Will Gion Festival 2022 Be Like?

Despite continued coronavirus concerns, officials expect Gion Festival 2022 to attract a million visitors.

Plans include the Gion Festival highlights—the floats’ grand processions on July 17 and 24, and the yoiyama and yoiyoiyama celebrations in the two evenings prior to those.

This could change if Japan suffers a spike in corona cases.

During yoiyama and yoiyoiyama on July 15 and 16, Kyoto streets in the Gion Festival neighborhoods will be closed as usual to vehicle traffic. Called “pedestrian paradise,” this opens up the festival for people to stroll at greater leisure.

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