🏮 Aoi Matsuri

葵祭

Kyoto (Kamigamo Shrine, Kita Ward, Shimogamo Shrine) · 15 May

Traditional performing arts

243 days to go
Rooms around Kyoto fill up while the festival is on.

The Aoi Festival (formally the Kamo Festival) is an annual rite held on May 15 at Kamo Mioya Shrine (Shimogamo Shrine) and Kamo Wakeikazuchi Shrine (Kamigamo Shrine) in Kyoto. It is one of Kyoto's three major festivals, and during the Heian period it was a state event so significant that it was simply called 'the Festival.' It is also known as the 'North Festival' in contrast to the 'South Festival' of Iwashimizu Hachimangu, and it preserves one of the few surviving traditions of court customs. The festival's origins date back to 567, during the reign of Emperor Kinmei, when rites were offered to the deities of Kamo to calm storms and rain and to remedy poor harvests. In 819, under the ritsuryo system, it became a state event ranking alongside middle-tier rituals, and after its revival in 1694, ox-drawn carriages and the court caps and robes of the imperial envoy came to be decorated with hollyhock leaves, firmly establishing the name 'Aoi Festival.' The name derives from the two-leaf hollyhock (Kamo hollyhock), the shrine crest of Shimogamo Shrine. The highlight of the day is the 'roto no gi' procession, which travels about 8 km from the Kyoto Imperial Palace through Shimogamo Shrine to Kamigamo Shrine. The main procession, led by the imperial envoy's proxy, and the women's procession, led by the saiō-dai, proceed dressed in late Heian-period costumes, accompanied by ox-drawn carriages decorated with hollyhock flowers. In addition, on May 3 as a preliminary rite, a horseback archery ritual is held in Tadasu no Mori, where archers on horseback shoot at three targets in a stirring display.

Getting there

The Aoi Festival procession departs from in front of the Kenreimon Gate of the Kyoto Imperial Palace and heads to Shimogamo Shrine. The nearest station is Imadegawa Station on the Karasuma Subway Line, about a 5-minute walk away.