Kyoto Aoi Matsuri

The Aoi Matsuri (in Japanese: 葵祭) is one of Kyoto’s renowned three great festivals, with the other two being the Jidai Matsuri and the Gion Matsuri.

Aoi Matsuri is celebrated each year on May 15th. It was a ritual that began in the sixth century by Emperor Kinmei to gain the favor of the deities of the Shimogamo and Kamigamo shrines so that they could have a good harvest.

It was named Aoi festival for the aoi (hollyhock) leaves which were once believed to protect against natural disasters. These leaves are used as decoration throughout the celebration.

The festival is thought to be one of the oldest in the world and historians trace it back to the Heian period in the sixth century. It was started by Emperor Kinmei in the sixth century to quiet the deities to save their precious harvest. There were either great storms or an unripe grain that caused the people of Kyoto to pay attention to these deities. Whatever the case, the Kamo-deities were thought to be angry at the disrespect of the people and had put a curse on the city. A diviner determined that it was the deities enshrined at the Kamigamo and Shimogamo Shrines were the ones who were upset at the people of Kyoto. In response to this, Emperor Kinmei had special rites performed at the two shrines to quiet the deities. Then magically, either the storms cleared or the grained ripened and the harvest was saved. Later, in the ninth century, Emperor Kanmu recognized these deities as protectors and establishes Aoi Matsuri as an annual imperial event.

I was arriving a bit late in the morning for seeing the procession on their walk from the Imperial Palace to the first shrine (Shimogamo Jinja). So i moved on to the Kamigamo Shrine and waited for the processing to arrive there in the afternoon. It was a sunny nice day and even though i had found a nice spot shaded by trees i still managed to get sunburned. The location under the trees made for some interesting lighting conditions with all the shadows and occasional patches of light shining through. Usually when using flash this can be easily solved (a Nikon feature called Active D-Lighting), but with all the horses involved in this festival flash-photography wasn’t allowed.

Transport: Kyoto Imperial Palace: 5 minutes’ walk from Imadegawa Station. Imadegawa Station is on the subway Karasuma Line from JR Kyoto Station.
Shimogamo-jinja Shrine: About 5 minutes’ walk from Shimogamo-jinja-mae bus stop. Shimogamo-jinja-mae bus stop can be reached from JR Kyoto Station on City Bus No.4 or No.205.
Kamigamo-jinja Shrine: Close to Kamigamo-jinja-mae bus stop, which is 30 minutes from JR Kyoto Station by City Bus No.4.

Website: The official website (all in Japanese) is the one of the Kamigamo Shrine, that celebrates and organizes this event. Both the Kyoto tourist pages as well as the Japan Tourism pages also have some entries on the festivals in english.