"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.”
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.
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.
