Gion Matsuri
17 July 2026 — Lanterns glow, ropes pull – the festival float sails among the stars.
Gion Matsuri is Kyoto's most famous festival, held throughout July around the Yasaka Shrine. It dates back to 869, when, during an epidemic, prayers were offered to drive away the sickness and 66 spears were erected, one for each province of Japan at the time. Over the centuries the ritual grew into a great city festival. Its most memorable sight is the yamaboko (the general name for the two kinds of festival floats, hoko and yama), decorated with tapestries and lanterns and pulled through the streets by the townspeople with ropes. In the evenings before the procession, around 14–16 July, the streets are closed to traffic and filled with lantern light. The first grand procession takes place on 17 July and the second on 24 July. The float procession is inscribed on UNESCO's list of intangible cultural heritage. The festival has a fixed place in July, in the heart of the Japanese summer.
Flying across the sky: An ethereal, bluish-silver figure made of luminous dots and thin lines, like a constellation: a tall festival float with a tiered roof, hanging lanterns and long ropes, drifting slowly across the night sky
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