Japan’s Most Famous Festival: Kyoto’s Gion Festival

Japan’s Most Famous Festival: Kyoto’s Gion Festival The spectacular Ato Matsuri floats procession, an iconic part of the Gion Festival. [/caption]Dating to 869 C.E., Kyoto’s Gion Matsuri shines as a beacon of more than a thousand years of Kyoto and Japanese culture. Learn here about the extraordinary historical and cultural gifts it shares over the entire month of July, making it arguably Japan’s most famous festival.

What are the Gion Matsuri’s Origins?

In the 9th century, central Japan suffered from regular outbreaks of terrible plagues, resulting in widespread death and destruction. Torrential downpours, high humidity, and intense heat mark Japan’s rainy season. And in those days, medicine and sanitation were not well developed. The densely populated capital city of Kyoto was especially prone to eruptions of diseases like malaria, cholera, and dysentery.

At that time, people believed that angry spirits (called onryō in Japanese) brought illnesses and other calamities, as revenge. Consequently, the Japanese Emperor Seiwa called for a ritual to appease these spirits. The ritual was named a goryo-e, a meeting of honorable spirits. This name called for the transformation people were hoping would take place.

They believed that, through prayers and other forms of placation, spirits could willingly change their demeanor, and help people instead of harming them.

The original ritual involved 66 hoko, long pikes, or halberds.

There was one for each of 66 regions that made up the country at that time. We don’t know what happened after the first goryō-e. But when another epidemic struck, the emperor called for another one, and then another, and so on. By a century later, it was an annual event.

What Deities Does the Gion Festival Celebrate?

Initially the goryo-e likely addressed the spirits of people who had suffered unjustly from political intrigue during their life.

But over the centuries, the spiritual focus of the festival has shifted.For centuries now, the central deities of the Gion Festival have been Susano-o no Mikoto, Princess Kushi Inada, and their children. These deities’ primary shrine is Yasaka Shrine in Kyoto’s Gion district, giving the festival its name. Susano-o no Mikoto is the god of storms, the original agents of water-borne illnesses and related damage (like floods). Kushi Inada is the goddess of rice, irrigated by the summer storms. Of course, historically rice has had sacred status as the primary source of nourishment for all Japanese.

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