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2019年7月28日

Practice of Gion Festival Music in the Community

It’s July. The Gion festival (祇園祭) has begun. At the Iwatoyama (岩戸山) float community where I live, the symbol lantern is lit at the eaves of a restaurant. The practice of Nikai Bayashi (二階囃子, Gion festival music unique to each float) has begun too. After the Kippu-iri (切符入り, the ceremony for the commencement of the ・・・

2019年7月24日

Gyoja-mochi, Available only on July 16

In Kyoto, we have some confections exclusively available only during the Gion Festival (祇園祭り) season. For example, the float called Uradeyama (占出山) sells a sweet cake called Kiccho-Ayu (吉兆あゆ, fish shaped pancake with gummy rice cake called Gyuhi inside) manufactured by Daigokuden-honpo (大極殿本舗) only from July 14 to 16. Among many other, the most famous ・・・

2019年7月20日

Hokotate, Building Festival Floats

The weather has been dull lately. In Kyoto, Sakimaturi (前祭り, the first half of Gion festival) has just finished, and as of July 18, Hokotate (鉾建て, building the festival floats) of Atomaturi (後祭り, the latter half of Gion festival) has begun. Ohfunaboko (大船鉾) which belongs to the cummunity of Shinnmachi (新町)-Shijo (四条) is a magnificent ・・・

2019年7月20日

Gion Festival Now

Gion Festival (祇園祭り）is a synonym for the sunmer in Kyoto. If you live in Kyoto for a long time, you will find yourself delighted only with watching the enormous Hoko (鉾) and Yama (山) of the festival. In my childhood, I often dreamed about living in one of those Gion festival communities since I was ・・・

2019年7月17日

Kokusai Kazoku Festival at Byodo-ji Temple

Byodo-ji (平等寺), otherwise called Inaba-san (因幡さん), is an old temple in Kyoto. The temple is very popular for its benefit of healing illness, especially termninating cancers. The Yakushi-Nyorai (薬師如来, the Buddha of Healing), the deity here, is listed as three top powerful Nyorai in Japan, along with Amida-nyorai (阿弥陀如来) at Zenko-ji (善光寺) temple in Nagano ・・・