17th July 2019, Gion-matsuri festival Yamahoko-junkou parade was held in Kyoto. Gion-matsuri festival is a biggest festival in Kyoto, so it start on 1st July, and it finish on 31st July in every year. But for almost visitors Gion-matsuri means this Yamahoko-junkou parade and Yoiyama the eve party of Yamahoko-junkou parade. OK, Gion-matsuri festival is a big festival of 1 month, but we could focus on this Yamahoko-junkou parade. It’s OK.
So, this parade start on 9:30 am. I arrived there on 9:00. many people were already there, but no problem. This parade goes on the streets the total 3.5km length, I could stand within 2m from a guardrail.
This is my 7th Gion-matsuri experiences. I wanted to watch the Shimenawa-kiri performance in this year. It means the declaration of the start of this parade to Yasaka-jinja shrine. Shimenawa is a holy rope that means the border line of the human and god. So holy boy on the Naginata-hoko cuts this holy shimenawa, after that the parade goes into holy god world. This performance should be done on Sijo-Fuyacho crossing. So I took my position at the south side of Sijo-street. If you stand on north side then you should bathe the sun beam. I could avoid the sun beam there.
When you visit here to watch this Gion-matsuri festival, I recommend to watch the Tsuji-mawashi. Tsuji-mawashi is a performance of the turning of Big hoko-car. They don’t have their handle, so they have to turn with human power. It’s so dynamic scene of Gion-matsuri, much of visitor want to watch it. So too many people stand there, you have to go there early. But it is a valuable scene to watch.
