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Kyoto Gion Festival: Children Pray at Yasaka Shrine Ahead of Grand Parade

The Yomiuri Shimbun

18:24 JST, July 9, 2025

KYOTO — Six children who will lead one of the yamahoko floats for Kyoto’s Gion Festival visited Yasaka Shrine in Higashiyama Ward, Kyoto, on Monday to pray that celebrations will go smoothly.

Gion Festival is one of Japan’s most famous festivals. During the grand parade on July 17, many floats with luxurious decorations, called “yama” or “hoko,” are drawn through the streets of Kyoto.

The children, ages 5 and 6, had their faces painted white and wore eboshi hats. They were dressed in bright orange and yellow-green kariginu, informal clothes worn by the nobility in the Heian period (794-late 12th century). The children prayed at the main hall of the shrine with their parents and members of the preservation group Ayagasahoko.

They also received an edict from the priest saying they were messengers of the gods, and circled clockwise around the main hall three times.

On the day, the temperature in Kyoto reached 37.9 C, a high for the year. “It was very hot and I was nervous, but I want to do my best [in the parade],” said one of the boys.