KYOTO, May 06 (News On Japan) –
In preparation for Kyoto’s Aoi Festival, one of many metropolis’s three main festivals, the featured heroine referred to as the Saio-dai took half in a purification ritual referred to as Gomiso-gi no Gi to cleanse herself earlier than the primary occasion.
The ritual, held alternately at Kamigamo Shrine and Shimogamo Shrine every year, entails the Saio-dai and round 50 girls who take part within the competition procession purifying themselves in a standard Shinto ceremony.
This 12 months’s ceremony was carried out at Kamigamo Shrine. The 67th Saio-dai, Aya Yamauchi, dressed within the elaborate twelve-layered junihitoe gown, acquired ritual purification earlier than slowly immersing each arms into the Mitarashi River that runs by way of the shrine grounds.
She then launched a bit of paper referred to as chōzu-gami, used to dry her arms, into the stream as a symbolic gesture to wish for the protection and success of the competition.
The most important procession of the Aoi Festival, referred to as Roto no Gi, will happen on May fifteenth, that includes Yamauchi and about 500 contributors in vibrant conventional apparel parading by way of Kyoto’s verdant streets.
Source: YOMIURI