🏮

🏮 Kamo Kurabe Uma

賀茂競馬

Kyoto (Kamigamo Shrine) · Every year on 5 May

Summer festivalTraditional performing arts

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

Kamo Kurabeuma is a festival held every year on May 5 at Kamo Wakeikazuchi Shrine (Kamigamo Shrine) in Sakyo Ward, Kyoto, and is a Kyoto City Registered Intangible Folk Cultural Property. On the day, a horserace called "kurabeuma" is offered to the shrine, with five races run two horses at a time. The origin is said to date to 1093. When court nobles and ladies-in-waiting at the imperial court divided into left and right sides for a contest of iris roots, the left side, which had prayed to Kamo Shrine, won, and it is said that this led to the offering of horse racing. In the medieval period it became established as an annual event of Kamo Shrine, and 20 estates called kurabeuma ryosho bore the costs, with 20 horses divided into left and right and 10 races held. Before the main event, on May 1 the Ashizoroe-shiki is held, in which the coats and speed of the participating horses are inspected. The racing, with five races run two horses at a time, has been passed down to the present as a traditional annual event of Kamigamo Shrine.

Getting there

Held at Kamigamo Shrine (Sakyo Ward, Kyoto). The nearest station is Kitayama Station on the Kyoto Municipal Subway Karasuma Line, about 15 minutes on foot, or get off at the Kyoto City Bus stop Kamigamo Shrine-mae, which is immediately there. Parking is available within the shrine grounds (paid).