Kyoto Gion Festival and its community have great social impact

Zenbird Media held the event “Kyoto Gion Festival: How-To! 1,000-year community, Resilience & COVID” on July 14, with Catherine Pawasarat. She is the author of the world’s first comprehensive English-language guide to the Gion festival. This online event explored the Gion Festival and how it is linked to sustainability and community building.

During her talk, Pawasarat featured her findings regarding the unique culture that has supported the festival for such a long time. She had plenty to share from first-hand experiences and conversations with the community members of the Gion Festival.

Take away of the Gion festival and its sustainability presentation

Firstly, to grasp the whole and authentic Gion Festival scenes, we watched a short video Pawasarat created. It contains footage she filmed at the actual festivals, which includes Yamaboko junkou, the most famous procession. She explained terminologies and ritual meaning involved, such as processions to purify the streets of Kyoto. The festival’s original goal is to appease the gods to turn them from evil spirits into good ones.

We could tell from the footage that so many people are involved with dedication. Pawasarat told us these people are committed to the festival, so they prepare for it all year around. The community is an essential part of the Gion festival and its sustainability, she says.

Secondly, Pawasarat gave a presentation on various topics related to the Gion Festival while showing photos that she has taken since she started researching about it 20 years ago. One of the things that Pawasarat was impressed by is that people in the community think of things in a protracted timeframe. One ohayashi music troupe had been practicing for a float that they did not have yet. They estimated it would take about 100 years to raise the money, but they still practiced every year so they would be ready when they owned a float.

Though the festival comes full of rituals and history, Pawasarat explained what has changed over the long period that the festival has been held. The “unique flavor of Kyoto,” where traditions and innovation combine, was illustrated when she revealed that this same music troup raising money for a float realized their goal in just 10 years through crowdfunding. Overall, the Gion festival has great social impact and the potential to further enrich the community remains.

About the festival experience at home

Finally, the event participants enjoyed an origami craft, chochin lanterns, which are often displayed at Japanese festivals. This fun project was completed within five minutes by following simple instructions, using a pair of scissors and some glue. It was nice to learn that some decided to decorate their room with the lantern, and others made more with their children afterward.

The participants’ comments after the event include, “The presenter’s knowledge of the topic was outstanding, and I felt I was gaining a fascinating insight into an aspect of Japanese culture that is difficult to understand with my limited Japanese language ability,” “It was wonderful to be able to both enjoy the atmosphere of the Gion matsuri and listen to Catherine’s presentation at the comfort of my home” and “I loved Tomoyo’s hands-on origami workshop!”

For this event, Zenbird donated the amount of money equivalent to one meal on each participant’s behalf to NPO Happiness, which runs a charitable children’s cafe in Kyoto.

Zenbird aims to connect with readers and be a helpful platform for them to live better, more enriched lives through the community. We will continue to offer opportunities to deepen understanding and experience sustainable ideas unique to Japan.

For more of Catherine Pawasarat’s work on the Gion Matsuri, see her site: GionFestival.org