page_title: Gion Matsuri
section_title: Yamaboko floats
hierarchical_section_title: Gion Matsuri / Yamaboko floats
caption_attribution_description: English: description:Niwatoriboko float, one of the first to begin the parade. At the top, festival-goers take turns getting on the float through a side building. photographer: Chris Gladis photographer location:Kyoto, Japan flickr_url: [1]
context_page_description: The Gion Festival takes place annually in Kyoto and is one of the most famous festivals in Japan. Gion Matsuri is one of the largest festivals in Japan for purification and pacification of disease causing entities. It takes place in the month of July on the 17th and 24th. There are many ceremonies held during the festival, but it is best known for its parade, the Yamaboko Junkō. The festival takes place at the Yasaka Shrine and the festival gets its name from the Gion district of the city.
  Kyoto's downtown area is reserved for pedestrian traffic on the three nights leading up to the massive parade. These nights are known as yoiyama on July 16 and July 23, yoiyoiyama on July 15 and July 22, and yoiyoiyoiyama on July 14 and July 21. The streets are lined with night stalls selling food such as yakitori, taiyaki, takoyaki, okonomiyaki, traditional Japanese sweets, and many other culinary delights. Women dressed in yukata walk around the area, carrying with them traditional purses and paper fans.
context_section_description: The floats in the Yoiyama Parade are divided into two groups, the larger Hoko ("halberd") and the smaller Yama ("mountain"), and are collectively called Yamaboko (or Yamahoko) . The nine Hoko represent the 66 halberds or spears used in the original purification ritual, and the 23 Yama carry life-sized figures of famous people. All the floats are decorated with tapestries, some made in Nishijin, the textile district of Kyoto, others imported from all over the world. Musicians sit in the floats playing drums and flutes . The floats are pulled with ropes down the street and good luck favors are thrown from the floats to the crowd .In 1979 Yamahoko was listed on the Important Intangible Folk Cultural Properties. And in 2009 Yamahoko was listed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
  On the 17th the floats take the Guardian Gods from the shrine to the center of the city to a temporary dwelling . They reside here for a week and are available to parishioners . On the 24th they are taken back to the Yasaka Shrine to their permanent dwelling . On the way back to the shrine, the procession stop at the Imperial garden. At the garden the Gauardian Gods are met with offerings of food, music, and dance.
  Each year the families that maintain the floats draw lots at a special meeting to determine in what order they will take part in the festival. These lots are issued at a special ceremony before the parade, during which the Mayor of Kyoto dons the robes of a magistrate. On the Naginata Hoko is the chigo, a young boy in Shinto robes and crowned with a golden phoenix, chosen from among the Kyoto merchant families as the deity's sacred page. After weeks of special purification ceremonies, during which he lives isolated from contaminating influences such as the presence of women, he is carried onto the float, as he is not permitted to touch the ground. The boy must cut a sacred rope (shimenawa) with a single stroke to begin the festival.
caption: Niwatoriboko float, one of the first to begin the parade. Festival-goers take turns getting on the float through a side building.
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