![]() The festival’s permanent place in Kyoto life was not an inevitable outcome. The important thing was that the festival took root, eventually to become a permanent feature of life in Kyoto and an integral part of the city’s cultural heritage up to modern times. After all, many of the city’s residents were originally from the countryside and had become untethered once they had lost their traditional social ties. Considering how precarious their lives were, it was perhaps not surprising that Heiankyo residents from the lower classes should be filled with anxiety and seek release. Mikoshi even got banged up or abandoned on occasion. Chalk it up to the excess of overheated animal spirits among festival participants. These goryo-e festivities sometimes got out of hand, as the jostling of the huge crowds and sweltering weather of Kyoto in July could combine to spark street fighting resulting in injury or even death. In the late 11 th century Kyoto had experienced a craze for dengaku performances which morphed into parades of people dressed in colorful costumes who sang and danced to loud music in the street. Parades and entertainments of all kinds were held to keep the fearsome ekijin Gozu Tenno amused and his wrath under control.ĭengaku dancing derived from rice-planting celebrations came to be one of the preferred strategies for doing so. One mitigating factor, however, was the Japanese penchant for regular bathing.ĭuring the Heian and Kamakura periods, the Gion Goryo-e remained an officially-sponsored event, often attended by imperial family members and aristocrats, although with individuals of all classes participating. Things could become especially nasty after heavy rains and flooding. And the “refuse” included many dead animals and human corpses as well as excrement. ![]() Refuse was thrown into the streets as well the waterways crisscrossing the city, including the all-important Kamo River. That the Gion Goryo-e should become an annual event during summer was hardly surprising since epidemics have ravaged the inhabitants of Kyoto on a regular basis during that oppressively humid season up to modern times.Īlthough Japan is now renowned for its excellent standards of hygiene, in the early days that was far from the case. Rakutyuuragaki of the Gion Matsuri (Image: Wikimedia Commons) Annual Appearance of Festivals and Plagues
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