Float Procession Held During Gion Festival in Kyoto; Colorful Floats Adorn City’s Myako-Oji Avenue

The Yomiuri Shimbun

15:17 JST, July 17, 2024

A colorful float is pulled along the Miyako-Oji avenue in Kyoto during a procession at the Gion Matsuri festival on Wednesday morning.

The procession, which took place during the festival’s Sakimatsuri, or early festival, began after a child carrying a naginata long sword cut a rope that marks the boundary between the divine territory and the secular world. Throngs of spectators along the route cheered when a large float performed the tsujimawashi technique of changing its direction at an intersection.