Small museums that safeguard Asian monuments and the history of some of the greatest empires and religions in history need visitors to survive.
The position of women in the Gion Matsuri tradition has changed over the centuries, but the fact is that the Gion Matsuri could never be staged...
"Think of the Yamaboko Junko as a giant, serpentine magnet circulating through the festival zone drawing ekijin spirits of disease into the yama and hoko.”
From ancient times, horses, especially white horses, were highly revered in Japan, and it was believed that sometimes kami arrived on horseback.
The parade of floats are famous, but decidedly secondary to the evening processions that take Yasaka Shrine’s three deities into the city for a one-week stay.
The Gion Matsuri story crosses many cultural lines. Was Muto-shin really Susanoo-no-Mikoto or a Korean god? And in which country did the Shorai brothers live?
Seen during the Gion Matsuri, many Kyotoites to this day still paste such charms outside their doors, proclaiming that they are descendants of Somin Shorai.
The history of the kami honored at the Gion Festival have intriguing parallels - and differences. The Yasaka Shrine claims they are the same, but are...
It’s hardly surprising that the Gion festival became an annual event since epidemics have ravaged Kyoto in the oppressively humid summers up to modern times.
This mid-summer spectacle was born from fear, nourished by hope, and today is an expression of unbridled joy and universal yearning for good health.
A slogan which many have been sharing in Japan on SNS and mainstream media is “Corona ni makeruna!” It roughly translates as “Don’t let yourself...
(Part 10 of A Series on Ukiyo-e) The exhibition Last Ukiyoe: Inheritors of Ukiyo-e from the Isao Toshihiko Collection at the Ota Memorial Museum...
