Happy Halloween for those who celebrate it! Tomorrow we leave October behind and move in to November, the month famous for brilliant fall leaves here in Kyoto. Heres a list of festivals you can attend while enjoying kōyō (autumn colors)! We hope you have a chance to join us! Let us know if you managed to go to these events. Would love to see your photos :) 11/01 | Inoko Festival at Goō Shrine Traditionally this festival is held on the first day of the boar in the tenth month of the Japanese lunar calendar, a day in which it was said that by eating mochi you could ward off all manner of sickness and misfortune. Reenacting the ritual once held in the Heian court, several women dressed as high ranking court women carry tools to make mochi with to where the chief priest awaits. Dressed as a Heian Period emperor the chief priest pounds the rice cakes. The group then receives lanterns and proceeds with a crowd behind them to the nearby Imperial Palace where they will offer up their prayers. You can also buy and try inoko mochi at this festival. 11/01 – 11/10 | Gion Odori at Gion Kaikan Luckily for those who come to Kyoto in the fall, the Gion Higashi hanamachi puts on their annual Gion Odori for a ten day period in early November. With two shows a day at 1:30pm and 4:00pm, prices range from 3,500 yen for the performance to 4,500 yen for the chance to enjoy tea ceremony hosted by the maiko and geiko before the dance begins. As with all the geisha dances in Kyoto, Gion Odori pays close attention to seasonal themes and colors when telling its stories through several short dances and scenes. Particularly striking are the autumn scenes against red, orange, and yellow backdrops. 11/03 | Kyokusui no En at Jonangū Shrine One form of entertainment to the artistic and cultured Heian Period nobility was the Kyokusai no En, introduced originally to Japan from the Chinese court. Participants would gather along a winding stream within a garden, and a sake cup would be floated downriver with the goal being to create a poem to a set theme within the time it took the cup to flow from the previous poet or else take the “penalty” and drink the sake within. For this beautiful reenactment the game begins from 2pm, with koto accompaniment. A relaxing and sedate event, it recaptures the leisurely artistic style of the Heian period elite for the modern viewer. 11/08 | Ōhitaki Fire Festival at Fushimi Inari Shrine A festival held after the autumn harvests have been completed in thanks for agricultural bounty, Fushimi Inari Shrines Ōhitaki Fire Festival is the most popular of several harvest fire festivals held in Kyoto around this time of year. Three bonfires are set up in a cleared space on the shrine grounds, composed of piles of prayer sticks compiled over the year from shrine visitors covered in pine branches and topped by straw from the fall crops. From 13:00 priests make their way to the site and the fires are lit, smoke roiling off the scented pyres. Kagura dances and a comedic play are performed during and after the prayers as well. It is said that these fires serve to call the god Inari back from the fields in order to rest on Mount Inari for the winter months. 11/17 | Falconry Exhibition at Nijō Castle In Japans past raptors were considered symbols of strength and military might, and were prized by generals and lords. It’s known that the shōgun Tokugawa Ieyasu was particularly fond of the birds, and today they are still regarded as a symbol of the Tokugawa shogunate’s power. For this fall event members of the Tokyo Falconry Association come to Kyoto to display their skills and those of their partners in various ways. Visitors even have a chance to be lucky enough to get close enough to try handling these birds themselves. Watching the myriad of hawks and falcons spread their wings and dart in to the sky after their prey is an exhilarating experience to be sure!
Posted on: Fri, 31 Oct 2014 08:00:00 +0000