“Hoitto, hoitto!” Call of mikoshi portable shrine at Maiko beer garden

17 July is the highlight of Gion festival and many people enjoy to see “Yamaboko” float procession that I wrote in the previous article. Although the float is quite spectacular, its parade is only a means of getting rid of evil spirits from the Kyoto city to welcome Yasaka shrine’s deities. So I guided my guest to the most important part of Gion festival; “Shinko-sai” after my half day tour.

 In front of the Yasaka shrine, three portable shrines gathered together. The street around the shrine was packed with so many sightseers and local festival participants. The bearers carrying the portable shrines were crying out “hoitto, hoitto” roundly and that made Japanese festival like atmosphere. This is the real “Matsuri”!

After enjoying “Shinko-sai” starting ceremony, we headed to “Maiko beer garden” located in Gion shirakawa. It was perfect place to talk with “Maiko”; apprentice of Geisha and take photo with her. My guest had a lot of questions and I translated it to Japanese language for Maiko. She is “Koharu” from Miyagawacho, one of the flower districts located nearby Gion. Miyagawacho is good place to enjoy the quiet and tranquil because it is not widely known especially by foreign tourist.

When we were enjoying “Maiko beer garden” at the top floor of Japanese ryokan inn, suddenly vigorous call of festival “Hoitto, hoitto!” coming from the street. That brought us back to the festival again. Middle-aged men sitting next to our table also started shouting “Hoitto, hoitto!” toward the local people carrying “mikoshi”. The call of “mikoshi” portable shrine has magical power to produce festival atmosphere even at “Maiko beer garden”.

After the call of festival had gone, Maiko dance performance started and we came back to peaceful world. She was holding “uchiwa”Japanese old fan that delivered me the sense of summer. It is interesting to note that her ornament shape and kimono design were also “uchiwa”. Wearing seasonable designed ornament and kimono is important in Japan.

 On the way back to their accommodation and my station, local people were still carrying and shaking the “mikoshi” with the call “Hoitto, hoitto!”. Their back Chinese character “Nishiki” shows that they are Nishiki food market associated people.  “Mikoshi” portable shrine deepens the connection with deities and local solidarity. 

Following NHK program video also explains about them. You can watch the following video until 3 Agust.

Museums on wheels “Yamahoko” decorated with gorgeous tapestries imported from overseas

 Gion Matsuri is one of the most famous Japanese festivals and its highlight is called “Yamahoko Junko”. It takes place on July 17^th. and gorgeously decorated floats are paraded down the center part of Kyoto city. Since this year’s July 17^th is national holiday and tremendous crowds of sightseeing people are expected…, I went to "Hiki-zome" pulling the newly built floats event that was taken place on Thursday July 13^th. It is good chance to see the floats of festival in close distance.

Local school children were pulling “Hokaboko” float. It is also good opportunity for visitors to experience pulling float. The man on the roof makes sure the float procession by pushing the obstacles such as electric line.

This day, I guided my guest from Netherland to some sightseeing destinations. Some of them were Gion festival associated places; Yasaka shrine and Gion festival gallery. We could see beautiful portable shrines at the stage of Yasaka shrine.
From here you can see the view of early 17th century depicting local people shaking the portable shrine to entertain the deities of Yasaka shrine. 
: The area in and around the Kyoto city (Funaki-version)

We stopped by Gion matsuri gallery that is perfect place to explain about the festival float because it holds the model. You can view the structure in close distance. The front part was decorated with gorgeous tapestry. It looks like museum on wheels!

It is clear that those tapestries are originally from other countries such as Persia and Europe. But how those products were imported from overseas under the isolationist foreign policy by Edo shogunate? Actually those tapestries were brought by merchant via my guest’s country. Dutch was allowed to trade with Japan because they were more interested in business rather than in missionary work. Considering about those historical background, the float of Gion festival is something like the showcase of the long relationship between Japan and Netherland.

The other amazing point is that the float is constructed without using any nails! Only carpenters use ropes made of hemp. The process of assembling floats is one of the interesting viewing point and you can see it in the gallery. Above picture tying shape is called “butterfly”.

This one is called “Shrimp”. Each district float has its own shape. It is something like an art!

"Discover Kyoto" explains whole story of float very well!

I could see also "Huna-boko" literally means ship shaped float 

Here is uploaded photos by my guests.

"Hamo" seasonal fish cutting demonstration

 "Hamo"  is one of the specialities in Kyoto summer.  It is a kind of eel and translated as conger pike in English. Every July 5th, there is an annual event called "Hamo-dochu" that is precious opportunity to experience Kyoto food culture.

The highest-ranking geisha called "Tayu" also attends this event. "Tayu"  dyes teeth black that is different from other Geisha. It might sound unique for western people but "Tayu" keep the traditional custom.

My guest could enjoy commemorative photo with "Tayu"! 

"Tayu" was making attention of people rather than fish cutting demonstration  but the main purpose of this event is for promoting "Hamo" traditional seafood culture.  "Hamo"  contains a lot of small bones so cooking it requires professional skill. 

The chef was slicing the fish around one millimeter interval to cut the bones and press associate was recording the sound.  It is real hassle to prepare so it is not consumed so much elsewhere.  

But why Kyoto people have loved this fish? The reason comes from the location of the city.
Since Kyoto is located far from sea, it was difficult to carry sea ingredients to the ancient capital in fresh condition.   "Hamo"  was the only fish that has strong vitality to be transported to Kyoto even in hot summer season. That was the reason Kyoto chef has to cut the fish meat so many times.

Bowl of "hamo cuisine" was served free of charge. It is cooked with somen-noodle and vegetables.  They also comes from Awaji island where the "Hamo" fish comes from.  Boiled "hamo" was shrimp like texture for my guest.

We also visited Fushimi Inari shrine where is famous for thousands of torii gates and I wrote the wish of guest on miniature torii.  One of them means  "recovery from illness" in Japanese that is for my guest's sister who couldn't participate the tour because of  her stomachache.
Miniature torii with Japanese words must be good souvenir for her but also worked well because her sister actually got well and joined us together after the event!




Following is "Mamo-dochu2015" taken by Sankei