🏮 Shiman Rokusennichi Gion Matsuri Mikoshi Arai Chochin Gyoretsu

四万六千日祇園祭-神輿洗い・ちょうちん行列

Kyoto (Shijo Ohashi Bridge) · Every year on 10 July

MikoshiSummer festival

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

The Gion Festival's mikoshi-arai-shiki (portable shrine washing ceremony) is held at Shijo Ohashi in Kyoto, a traditional event in which parishioners of Yasaka Shrine carry a mikoshi and purify it with sacred water from the Kamo River. Deeply rooted in the origins of the Gion Festival, which began in 869 as a prayer for the end of an epidemic, it involves purifying the mikoshi that enshrines Susanoo-no-Mikoto and also carries the meaning of welcoming the deities gathered at the yamaboko (festival floats). At dusk on July 10, as the sun sets and darkness begins to fall, the mikoshi, led by torches and lanterns, arrives at Shijo Ohashi and is purified with water drawn from the Kamo River early that morning. The splashing water is believed to bring protection from misfortune, and many people come to be sprinkled by it. In addition, a torch procession that purifies the path the mikoshi takes and the Omukae Chochin, which parades to Gion music, color the Kyoto night.

Getting there

The nearest stations are Gion-Shijo Station on the Keihan Main Line and Kawaramachi Station on the Hankyu Kyoto Line. About 5 to 10 minutes on foot. The Shijo Keihan-mae bus stop is also nearby.