Jidai Matsuri

On Monday, we had the chance to go see the Jidai Matsuri aka Festival of the Ages. The video shows a graceful dance that kicked off the parade.

Because we are foreign residents in Kyoto and called very early to inquire, we got special seats through the Kyoto International Community House. We were in a roped off area with chairs located right in front of City Hall. The folks sitting with us were mostly college students studying in Japan for a semester abroad. Interestingly, they seemed to speak Spanish, Italian and Korean more than English.

The festival started in 1895 to commemorate the 1100th anniversary of Kyoto being named the Imperial city. (Kyoto was the capital from 794 until 1867 when the capital was moved to Tokyo.) The first Jidai Matsuri also marked the opening of Heian Jingu shrine which is a scaled down model of Kyoto's original imperial palace. If any of you come to visit us in late spring or early summer we can show you the GLORIOUS irises that grow in Heian Shrine's gardens.

Anyway, about 2000 festival participants paraded from Kyoto's Imperial Palace towards Heian Jingu Shrine dressed in costumes dating from each of the important periods in Kyoto's history. Many of the costumes were amazingly beautiful. However, the Edo Period footmen were the most fun. They carried trunks and tall spears and periodically chanted and threw them to each other. Since the spears were very tall and trunks very heavy - they got a great crowd reaction!