Gion Matsuri (Part 1 of 3) – Byobu

During the 3 days of Yoiyama nights (14-16th July) old textile merchant homes and businesses on Shinmachi and Muromachi open up the doors to their homes and shops, allowing the public a first-hand look at their valuable folding screens, carpets and other historic artifacts.  Folding screens have been popular in Japan since the early 16th century. Initially they were commissioned by the shoguns and contained political references, mainly to indicate who was in charge, but later were more popular as visual memories for the wealthier families in the Japanese society, with references to historical festivals and daily activities of people.

Most of those merchants ask for small entry fee to visit their homes, and unfortunetly all of the ones i found didn’t allow pictures shot inside. So i kept my Byobu-Matsuri experience to just look at some of the open accesible exhibitions.