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The Kyoto Gion festival was started in 869 A.D when a bad plague spread in Kyoto. In the first festival, young men carried numbers of wooden floats as a divine intervention to stop the plague. The plague soon ended, and this event became a popular festival. In the Edo Era, the current form of the decorated floats appeared in the festival.
The highlights of the Kyoto Gion Matsuri festival are Yoi-yama on the 16th and Yamahoko-junko on the 17th. At Yoi-yama, some houses on the Muromachidori and Shinmachidori streets open their doors to show treasured old folding screens. Yamahoko-junko is the procession of colorful floats through downtown Kyoto. The floats are pulled through the streets by teams of men dressed in traditional costumes. Each of the large floats carries musicians. The floats are decorated with tapestries or fabrics from Nishijin, Kyoto. Many of them were imported from India, Belgium, Persia, Turkey and other countries in the 15th century. The procession usually starts around 9 a.m. from the Shijo-Karasuma.
There are two kinds of floats: yama and hoko. Yama are smaller floats (weight: 1.2 ton - 1.6 ton, height: about 6m) and carried by people on their shoulders. Hoko are giant floats (weight: 4.8 ton - 12 ton, height: about 25m) on large wooden wheels and pulled by people. There are 32 floats in the procession: 25 yama floats and 7 hoko floats. The most interesting thing to see during Yamahoko-junko is the turns of big floats called tsujimawashi take place in intersections. Men pulling the floats chant loudly, "yoi, yoi, yoi to sei" accompanied with traditional Japanese music played by people who are on the floats.
Kyoto is taken back in time during the festival. At this time, you see many street vendors and people wear traditional Japanese outfits. Kyoto is located in 200 miles west of Tokyo. It takes about 3 hours by shinkansen train from Tokyo to Kyoto. Visit Kyoto to see the Gion Matsuri festival which is one of the biggest festivals in Japan.
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