There are a lot of festival or ceremony in Kyoto.
Do you know the best three odd festival in Kyoto?
These are……
Fire Festival of Kurama, Ox Festival of Uzumasa, and Yasurai Festival in north ward.
This weekend, Yasurai Festival will be hold in north ward in Kyoto on April 14th.
It’s been loved by locals since Heian era (794).
Today we’d like to share about what Yasurai Festival is.
【What’s the Yasurai Festival?】
Yasurai matsuri Festival is also called “Chinka-sai” or “Yasurai-bana” which is held on the second Sunday of April every year at Imamiya Shrine, Genbu Shrine, Kawakami Daijingusha Shrine in Kyoto.
Yasurai matsuri Festival is designated as an important intangible folk cultural property of the country.
Yausrai matsuri Festival starts in the latter half of the Heian era.
At that time, people were suffered from the epidemic often prevailed during the spring cherry blossoms.
We suppose that people took a cold because the temperature of the night and day is so different as well as these days.
Nowadays if people take a cold, they visit doctor and given the medicine. However people in Heian era thought the reason people got sick or the bad things are happened, it was caused by evil god.
Omiwa jinja shrine in Nara held “Chinka-sai Festival” to quell the plague.
So four shrines;Imamiya Shrine, Genbu Shrine, Kawakami Daijingusha Shrine, Kamigamo Shrine in Kyoto learned from this ritual and started Yasurai matsuri Festival to wish to calm the bad plague epidemic.
Imamiya Shrine
Contents of the festival
“Yasurai Matsuri Festival” is held every second Sunday in April every year. (Except Kamigamo Shrine)
Ujiko (shrine parishioner) dressed as small demon, ogre, musicians etc, and it will be a queue. These roles are arranged according the age.
The central presence of the queue is a huge red umbrella (“Hanagasa”: flower hat) which seems to be 2 meters in diameter.
Queues including redheads and black hair demons dance to accompany music, walk through the area of Ujiko and quell the plague.
Ogre dances like jumping while striking a bell and a drum.
Ogre costumes and dances are flamboyant hair style and fashion, and it feels contemporary. It is thought that such a great demon is one reason why this festival is said to be one of the three most eccentric festivals of Kyoto.
What to see
“Hanagasa” itself is quite conspicuous.
It is decorated with cherry blossoms, camellia, willows, hylomecon.
It is said that getting under this umbrella will expel evil.
Because it seems that visitors along the roads are all under the umbrella, it seems to be enjoyable together.
Hanagasa itself is “yorishiro” refers to an object that divine spirits are drawn or summoned to.
So people thought they put the evil spirit to the umbrella and it will die while the flowers are wilted.
That means getting under the umbrella is not to get luck from diety.
It’s to dispel the evil spirit with putting on the umbrella.
Although the festival to be held at Imamiya Shrine is the most famous, there seems to be an official document that Genbu Shrine is the birthplace of “Yasurai Matsuri Festival”.
And three shrines hold the festival on the same day.
If you visit three shrines, you should compare with the difference.
This festival is believed that if the day of Yasurai matsuri Festival would be sunny, every other festivals in Kyoto must be sunny. If it would be rainy, it must be rainy.”
Imamiya Yasurai Festival
Route:
Leaving Konenji Temple (12:00)→Arrival Imamiya Shrine (15:00)
Address:
21 Murasakinoimamiyacho,Kita-ku,Kyoto City, Kyoto
Access:
20 minute walk from Exit#1of Subway Karasuma Line Head to Kokusaikaikan “Kitaoji St.”
7 minute walk from the bus stop “Funaokayama” offered by City bus (1・北8・12・M1・204・205・206). This bus stop is located at Exist #3 of Subway Karasuma Line Head to Kokusaikaikan “Kitaoji St.”
Genbu Yasurai Matsuri
Route:
Leaving Genbu Shrine (8:30)→Making the tour of the shrine parishioner’s houses →Arrival Genbu Shrine (18:00)
Address:
88 Murasakinounrin’in-cho,Kita-ku,Kyoto City, Kyoto
Access:
8 minute walk from the bus stop “Daitokujimae” offered by City bus (1,12,204,205,206,北8,M1,101,102). This bus stop is located at Exist #3 of Subway Karasuma Line Head to Kokusaikaikan “Kitaoji St.”
Kawakami Yasurai Matsuri
Route:
Holding Kawakami Daijingu Ritual (11:00)→Leaving Shrine (12:00)→Making the tour of the shrine parishioner’s houses →Arrival So Shrine (14:00)→Arrival Imamiya Shrine (15:00)
Address:
35 Nishigamo MinamiKawakami-cho,Kita-ku,Kyoto City, Kyoto
Access:
15 minute walk from City bus (9) “Nishigamo Shako mae” from Kyoto St.
Do you need more information?
You should receive such local information of Kyoto by an application “KoI APP”.
With this application, even if you don’t have Wi-Fi, you can find nearby stores and so on.
You can install the application from the following URL.
Android app「KoI Service」
iPhone app「KoI Service」
