The Gion Festival (祇園祭, Gion Matsuri) is one of the largest and most famous festivals in Japan, taking place annually during the month of July in Kyoto. Many events take place in central Kyoto and at the Yasaka Shrine, the festival's patron shrine, located in Kyoto's famous Gion district, which gives the festival its name. It is formally a Shinto festival, and its original purposes were purification and pacification of disease-causing entities. There are many ceremonies held during the festival, but it is best known for its two Yamaboko Junkō (山鉾巡行) processions of floats, which take place on July 17 and 24.
The three nights leading up to each day of a procession are sequentially called yoiyoiyoiyama (宵々々山), yoiyoiyama (宵々山), and yoiyama (宵山). During these yoiyama evenings, Kyoto's downtown area is reserved for pedestrian traffic, and some traditional private houses near the floats open their entryways to the public, exhibiting family heirlooms in a custom known as the Folding Screen Festival (屏風祭り, Byōbu Matsuri). Additionally, the streets are lined with night stalls selling food such as yakitori (barbecued chicken on skewers), taiyaki, takoyaki (fried octopus balls), okonomiyaki, traditional Japanese sweets, and many other culinary delights.
The Gion Festival originated during an epidemic as part of a purification ritual (御霊会, goryo-e) to appease the gods thought to cause fire, floods, and earthquakes. In 869, when people were suffering from a plague attributed to vengeful spirits, Emperor Seiwa ordered prayers to Gozo Tenno, the god of the Yasaka Shrine, then known as Gion Temple. Sixty-six stylized and decorated halberds, one for each of the traditional provinces of Japan, were prepared and erected at Shinsen-en, a garden in the south of the imperial palace, along with mikoshi (御輿, 'portable shrines') from Yasaka Shrine. This practice was repeated wherever an outbreak of plague occurred. By the year 1000, the festival became an annual event and it has since seldom failed to take place. During the civil Onin War (under the Ashikaga shogunate), central Kyoto was devastated, and the festival was halted for three decades in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Later in the 16th century, it was revived by Oda Nobunaga.
Over the centuries, some floats have been destroyed or otherwise lost, and in recent years several have been restored. Float neighborhood associations sometimes purchase antique tapestries to replace worn or destroyed ones, or commission replicas from industrial weavers in Kyoto, or design and commission new ones from the weavers of Kyoto's famous traditional Nishijin weaving district. When they are not in use, the floats and regalia are kept in special storehouses throughout the central district of Kyoto, or at Yasaka Shrine.
The festival serves as an important setting in Yasunari Kawabata's novel, The Old Capital, in which he describes the Gion Festival as one of "the 'three great festivals' of the old capital", along with the Festival of Ages and the Aoi Festival.
In July 1912, Kyoto Governor Ōmori Shōichi decided to ban the Gion Parade following the track-laying project of streetcar and road widening in Kyoto, citing that it was a "private festival of one city shrine". Festival organizers fought back, reminding the governor of the vast crowds visiting Kyoto at festival time. Kyoto Hinode Shimbun, a newspaper in Kyoto, also fought back and launched an anti-ban campaign by publishing a series of critical pieces by eminent scholars, including Kyoto University professor Ichimura Mitsue, who claimed that the ban on the float parade meant "the death of the Gion Festival, and the death of Gion was the death of Kyoto". Following pressure from the campaign, Kyoto Governor Ōmori unbanned the parade.
Following is a list of selected annual events in the Gion Festival.
July 1–5: Kippuiri, opening ceremony of festival in each participating neighborhood
July 2: Kujitorishiki, a lottery to determine the order of floats in the parade, conducted at the municipal assembly hall
July 7: Shrine visit by chigo children of Ayagasaboko
July 10: Lantern parade to welcome mikoshi (御輿, 'portable shrines')
July 10: Mikoshi arai, cleansing of mikoshi with sacred water from the Kamo River
July 10–13: Building of floats
July 13 (a.m.): Shrine visit by chigo children of Naginataboko
July 13 (p.m.): Shrine visit by chigo children of Kuse Shrine
July 16: Yoimiya shinshin hono shinji, art performances
July 17: Parade of yamaboko floats
July 17: Parade of mikoshi from Yasaka Shrine