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A centuries-old festival in Japan brings Shinto traditions and towering floats to the streets

In Kyoto, Japan, The Gion Matsuri festival brings communities together with centuries-old processions featuring towering floats pulled through the streets throughout July.
The procession began in the late 9th century as a ritual to appease spirits believed to cause epidemics and pray for protection at the Yasaka Shrine.
Participants Katsushi Horikawa and Atsushi Matono prepare floats weighing up to 12 tons, while a selected boy sits on one during the parade, his feet never touching the ground.
Jacques Garrigues, a Frenchman who has lived in Kyoto for three decades, attended Friday's procession and noted the festival fosters community, saying "We also come together through a certain sense of religion."
Religious studies professor Fabio Rambelli explained the festival reflects centuries of interaction between Buddhism and Shinto, shaped by Japan's government-mandated separation of the two traditions during the Meiji era.

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Centuries-old festival brings Shinto traditions and towering floats to the streets

In Japan, the Gion Matsuri festival brings towering floats to the streets in Shinto religious processions that are rooted in rituals dating back more than 1,000 years and that were intended to ward off epidemics

2 days ago·New York, United States

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