A summer rite at Shimogamo Shrine –Shimogamo Shrine (1)

The Mitarashi festival at Shimogamo Shrine, Kyoto
下鴨神社/みたらし祭(京都)


It’s already September. The worst of the unbearable heat and humidity is passing, it’s getting milder. Before summer is gone I want to leave one more Kyoto summer.


I was requested to guide at Shimogamo Shrine and went to do a little pre-guiding research.

The day I went there was a festival taking place - Kyoto has so many festivals there’s one almost everyday somewhere in town. This festival is called The Mitarashi festival and involves ritual foot bathing in the water of Mitarashi pond (actually a stone-lined pool) in front of Mitarashi Shrine, part of the Shimogamo complex. The ritual is based on the belief that those who bathe their feet in the pond will be blessed by the god Mitarashi, bringing good health, curing plague and removing misfortune. There was a long queue I didn’t join waiting to follow the ritual. I had a look but wasn’t impressed…

I took my guests to the shrine and asked if they would like to have a look at the pool in which the ritual is conducted. It was terribly hot and we were almost dried up having been out in the strong sunshine all morning. There were only few people there. We approached the steps into the water and I couldn’t resist bathing my feet in the clear-looking water and took off my shoes, slowly walked in. The water wasn’t deep, coming to just below the knee and kind of chilly, but very pleasant and refreshing in the centre of the pool, until then I hadn’t realized it was spring water. I felt the water was not only cool but also blessing. No wonder there had been a long queue on my previous visit. Seeing is believing so I recommend you try it if you visit the shrine on a hot summer day.


I think spring water has ability to add something extra to things and feelings, which reminds me of this from my childhood. When ever I visited my grandmother in summer she always offered fruit which she cooled in a little stream by a paddy field. In my memory those home grown water melons and oriental melons were the best I’ve ever eaten.

Aomori Nebuta Festival

Aomori Nebuta Festival, Aomori
青森ねぶた祭 (青森/青森市)


August is the season for festivals. There are thousands of festivals throughout Japan. Aomori Nebuta festival is the one of the best-known and the crowds get bigger every year. I had wanted to see it for a long time and we happened to be near the site on the main day, so we grab the chance to see it.


Nebuta is famous for its floats which are carried around the centre of Aomori city. They are made from paper, wire and electric bulbs. They are beautiful to see in day light, but it absolutely stunning and breathtaking at night when they are lit from within. Each float is accompanied by its own band (hayashi-kata) and troop of “haneto” dancers.


It’s worth seeing if you are travelling in Japan in the first week of August.

There is an English website run by the festival committee and you can see the floats being carried through the streets on YouTube or other video sites.

a festival for children

Jizo-bon festival, Kyoto
地蔵盆

I live in central Kyoto surrounded by old wooden houses. If you ever walk in Kyoto city, you might have noticed the little shrines here and there on the street. They are shrines for Jizo and each community has own shrine. Jizo is a guardian of travellers and people, especially children.

Every 24th of the month is the day for Jizo and around the 24th of August many communities have a festival(Jizo-bon 地蔵盆) for the neighbourhood children. The number of children in my area has decreased and nowadays grandchildren who don’t live in the neighbourhood are allowed to join the festival.


What happens at the festival varies form place to place. Where I live the Jizo statue, usually displayed in the small shrine on the street, is displayed in one of the neighbourhood homes, a different one each year, and while a parish monk visits and chants the sutra in front of Jizo the children sit in a circle holding a big rosary that they pass through their hands because they are too young to read the sutra. In my home town the festival is held at a local temple and involves traditional bon-dancing (bon-odori 盆踊り) and some stalls selling food and the traditional game of catching goldfish with a paper scoop.

The variety of Onsen(hot springs)

It is said that the Japanese love hot springs, Onsen(温泉). Hot springs are probably the most popular domestic travel destination. There are more than a thousand hot springs dotted around the country, but Kyoto is unusual in having very few. In recent years drilling to tap into geothermally heated underground water has become very, very popular and because of advanced technology we have so-called hot springs in the very central of big cities but personally I don’t consider these real onsens because they aren’t natural springs. They are more like sentos(銭湯) which I’ll explain in more detail in another post.


Tamagawa Onsen, Akita Pref.
People in my area think of going to hot springs as a fun way to spend a couple of days but elsewhere attitudes can be different. One of the biggest differences is self-catering accommodation. Many onsens run both hotels and very basic self-catering facilities in Tohoku and people may stay a week, a month or even longer for medical reasons. This style is called “Tohji(湯治)”, literally meaning “hot water curing”. I had traveled to Tohoku before and was familiar with this kind of accommodation having stayed at some of the Tohji-yu (湯治湯 a hot spring for Tohji) but my husband was surprised to see our accommodation when we stayed Sukayu-Onsen(酸ヶ湯温泉) and whispered me that the place was more like a hospital than a hotel. –Actually the hotel looked like my wooden old elementary school building to me.


Sukayu Onsen, Aomori
Many of big Japanese hot spring ryokan/hotels open their baths to non-residents during the day. Visitors pay admission to take their bath which is often called “higaeri-nyuyoku(日帰り入浴)” which means day-return, thus we can visit many hot springs without staying in expensive hotels. Although part of the experience of staying at the hotel is the food as well.


Thuta Onsen, Aomori
There is a huge range of Japanese hot springs, from free outdoor hot springs to exclusive ryokans(Japanese inn) with 5-star cuisine; it depends on what you are looking for but there’s something to fit all tastes.


Yuze Onsen, Akita Pref.
-I’ll tell you the very basic rules of how to take a Japanese bath next time.


Kuroyu Onsen, Nyuto Onsen-go, Akita Pref.

The last part of Gion Matsuri festival

Kanko-sai/ Gion festival, Kyoto
祇園祭環幸祭 (京都)

I apologize again to anyone who follows my blog for not posting a while. Since I last posted I twice travelled to the north again. As I haven’t even posted my journey in June my photo folder has been getting bigger and bigger. I don’t know where to start …

In the last posting I explain about Gion Matsuri festival which runs the whole month of July and I want to add one more festival event, which takes place on the 24th of July around my area.


The float parade of the festival is far better known. I didn’t know about other events until I moved into the parish of my local shrine. In brief the festival is divided in two parts: float related events and portable shrine related events.
All the floats are built between the 10th and 13th and the procession takes place on the 17th. Where as the portable shrines are washed and cleansed in the Kamo river, which runs through the centre of the city, on the 10th. (Mikoshi-arai shiki) On the evening of procession the portable shrines leave Yasaka shrine carried by many men and parade through the city, they reside temporarily at Shijo Otabisho which is on the Shijo street near Shinkyogoku and Teramachi shopping arcades until the 24th. You can see the portable shrines placed in the middle of the high street for only those 2 weeks. On the 24th is the return parade to Yasaka shrine.








Unlike the other Kyoto city festivals this parade is noisy and lively. Year by year I’m becoming more familiar with this event and I’m looking forward to seeing the arrival of the shrines in my neighbourhood next year.

bits of Gion Matsuri festival

Gion festival, Kyoto
祇園祭(京都)


Gion Matsuri is the biggest festival in Kyoto. It runs during the whole month of July during which a variety of ceremonies and processions are conducted. It originated at the time plague attacked not only the city but swept through the whole country in the 9th century. People’s only defense was prayer.

They were convinced that the plague had been caused by a curse of the god Gozu-daiou and attended the Yasaka Shrine, where the god is enshrined, to pray for deliverance from the disaster. 66 halberd or hoko were stood at Shinsen-en garden to honour of the god of Yasaka and portable shrines were carried as well. It was called “Goryo-e” and was the origin of the festival. 66 floats each with a spear (hence the term hoko also applying to the float itself) were built, to represent the number of countries in those days and it was believed that hoko, which have sharp ends, would be suitable dwelling places for the spirits. Although there were breaks during the Onin War(1467-1477) and Second World War, it has otherwise been held annually for over 1,000 years.



The festivals are divided into 4 major parts: processions, bearing portable shrines, dedication rituals and ceremonies of the shrine. The most well-known part of the festival is a procession of hoko or floats which is held on the 17th of July. There are two types of hoko floats; one, hoko or halberd is larger and represents the original hoko used in the original ritual, the other, yama is smaller in size and usually carry historical figures and some carry figures based on mythology. Floats are built between the 10th and 13th of July and they are displayed on the street in the community each belongs to.



For three nights preceding the procession through central Kyoto the floats are decorated and hung with large numbers of lighted lanterns. People throng the streets strolling from float to float enjoying the festive atmosphere, playing games and eating at many stalls set up along streets during this time.



Especially the night before the procession, many of marchants' houses are open-fronted and display their treasure in the front room. It’s also called "Byobu Matsuri", literally meaning a folding screen festival. That is one of the great pleasures of the festival, to see the treasure and fine merchants' houses normally hidden.

(written with the big help of my friend)

Gion Matsuri festival

Gion festival, Kyoto
祇園祭(京都)

I apologize to anyone who follows my blog for not posting a while. I was away travelling around northern Japan. It was very pleasant, much cooler than here though there were many rainy days. I’d like to tell you about the places I visited, but I’ll do it soon when I sort out my photos. Instead I’ll tell you about my city’s biggest festival today.



The city has lots of festivals here and there, some are significant and some are not. The most loved and biggest in scale is Gion-matsuri festival, it runs almost the whole month of July. The best known part, and highlight, of the festival is the procession which was conducted today.



The last 3 nights the central area of the city was closed to all traffic and lots of stalls selling snacks line all the streets. I read that 100,000 people visited the city, many wearing yukata, the cotton kimono for summer, strolling in the massive crowds to enjoy the festival.


I didn’t go this year, but I live near by and the area is on my way to work so I saw the crowds gathering from early evening. It looked very packed as usual.

I most like the early morning scene with the big yamaboko floats resting peacefully in the quiet streets before the heat of the day builds up.