A major portion of the Gion Festival 2020 is canceled. On April 20 the Gion Festival Floats Association and Yasaka Shrine together announced that the Gion Festival processions on July 17 and 24––including the mikoshi processions to and from...
An Overview of Japan’s Most Famous Festival by Catherine Pawasarat. Shining as the best-known festival in Japan, the Gion Festival takes place every year over the whole month of July. It’s a testimony to the community spirit of downtown...
Ancient Tradition Meets High Tech With an 1100-year history, the Gion Matsuri or Gion Festival is working with an unusually long-term perspective. Seven generations sounds like a stepping stone by comparison! I first heard the Ōfune Boko hayashi music troupe...
I’m excited to be in the final stretch of writing my guidebook to the Gion Festival in English. My plan was to launch it at the Gion Festival 2020, in July. It looks like that may not happen. The Kyoto …
Rapidly changing times notwithstanding, in an 1100+-year event like the Gion Festival, transformation can be radical. The year 2014 heralded the reinstitution of the Gion Festival’s annual processions to two parts, one on the 17th and another on the...
