Aoi Festival Kicks Off in Kyoto

At 10:30 a.m., the grand parade set off from the Kyoto Imperial Palace, with members clad in ornate robes and ceremonial apparel paying homage to the Heian period, recreating the courtly magnificence of over a thousand years in the past.

The competition, which ranks alongside the Gion Festival and the Jidai Festival as one in all Kyoto’s three nice celebrations, traces its origins again roughly 1,400 years. It was first held to pacify poor harvests and epidemics, and to hope for plentiful crops. At the center of the occasion is the Saio-dai, or competition heroine, who this 12 months is Aya Yamauchi. Wearing a multilayered ceremonial kimono often called a jūnihitoe, she graced the tail finish of the procession.

The Aoi Festival, formally often called the Kamo Festival, is likely one of the oldest constantly held festivals in Japan, with origins that hint again over a millennium to the sixth century in the course of the reign of Emperor Kinmei. According to historical data, the competition started as a response to pure disasters—comparable to floods and poor harvests—that had been believed to be the results of the displeasure of the deities of the Kamo Shrines, particularly Kamigamo and Shimogamo Shrines in Kyoto. In an effort to appease the gods and guarantee a bountiful harvest, imperial envoys had been dispatched to those sacred websites bearing choices. Over time, these rituals developed right into a grand procession involving court docket nobles, and the custom was formally established as an annual competition of nationwide significance in the course of the Heian interval.

The title “Aoi” refers back to the hollyhock leaves that adorn the costumes, ox-drawn carts, and horses used within the competition. These leaves had been as soon as believed to carry protecting powers, fending off pure disasters and making certain concord with the gods. The leaves additionally symbolize the competition’s long-standing ties to agricultural prayer and its deep Shinto roots. During the Heian interval, the Aoi Festival grew to become a show of aristocratic tradition and aesthetics, that includes finely detailed clothes, ritual performances, and courtly manners, all of which mirrored the magnificence and ritual of the imperial court docket. The competition was so necessary that it was thought of a state operate, with emperors and high-ranking officers in common attendance.

One of the central figures of the competition is the Saio or Saio-dai, a job traditionally held by an single feminine member of the imperial household. The Saio was appointed by way of a divination ritual and lived in seclusion for purification earlier than serving because the excessive priestess for the Kamo Shrines. She led the procession and took part in sacred rituals, appearing as a bridge between the imperial court docket and the deities. Although the observe of choosing a Saio from the imperial household ended within the 14th century, the custom was revived in fashionable kind in 1956, with a selected girl from Kyoto serving because the Saio-dai, dressed within the iconic twelve-layered jūnihitoe kimono.

The competition declined in periods of struggle and political unrest, significantly in the course of the turbulent Muromachi and Edo durations. It was even suspended fully at occasions resulting from financial hardship or instability. However, with the Meiji Restoration and the preservation of cultural heritage turning into a nationwide precedence, the Aoi Festival was regularly revived. Today, it’s a celebrated cultural treasure of Kyoto, attracting giant numbers of spectators and preserving the aesthetics and rituals of Japan’s classical court docket traditions. The competition not solely honors historical beliefs and agricultural rites but in addition serves as a dwelling museum of Heian-period ceremony and apparel, sustaining a direct connection between Japan’s previous and current.

Source: YOMIURI