One of Japan’s three greatest festivals, the Gion Festival, which brightens Kyoto in July, is drawing near. Boasting a history of more than 1,000 years, the Yamahoko Junko parade is also registered as a UNESCO intangible cultural heritage.
The gorgeously decorated Yamahoko parade floats are a cultural property that was revived after enduring the disruption of the warring period, before which each township reportedly once competed to outdo the others creatively.
In a kyogen play titled “Kujizainin” (The Sinner’s Lot) that has been passed down since the Muromachi period (1336-1573), the townspeople gather together to discuss what sort of float to enter into the parade at the Gion Festival.
When a merchant says, “We should make a float of a powerful wild boar,” the apprentice Tarokaja rebuffs him, saying, “That’s not particularly interesting.” A sumo scene and a carp swimming up a waterfall are also rejected. When the nit-picking Tarokaja is asked if he has an idea, he offers the suggestion of “a demon chastising a sinner on a craggy mountain.” All agree, “That would make a good float,” and when they draw lots, the merchant ends up in the sinner’s role.
One can get a sense of the mood of medieval times, when unconventional ideas were esteemed. A kyogen actor who has performed this piece relates, “To build and then destroy is an essential Japanese tradition.” Through a repeated cycle of creation and rebirth, techniques are passed on and ideas refined.
On the international stage, the grand event of the Group of Seven summit was held at Elmau in Germany. Next year, the “Ise-Shima Summit” will be held in Japan, the first time in eight years that Japan has hosted a G-7 summit meeting. Though it is perhaps a bit early, one wonders how Japan will liven things up as the host country.
The first time Japan played host was the Tokyo Summit in 1979, right in the middle of the second oil crisis. A strategy to promote energy conservation was decided, and after it was implemented in Japan, it became the model for the world. The Okinawa Summit in 2000 focused on “IT development,” and the Hokkaido Toyako Summit in 2008 set its sights on “long-term goals for greenhouse gas reduction.” All of these were “good floats,” but it would be hard to say that Japan set a world trend.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is expected to tout the splendor of Japanese culture to the world at a venue near the Ise Grand Shrines. Since the clinching of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, there has been a spreading mood of welcoming foreign visitors to Japan with “omotenashi,” or the Japanese traditional style of hospitality. However, in order for visitors to take an interest in Japanese culture itself, I feel more thought and effort on how to convey it in a way that is easy to understand are necessary.
Simply repeating the same old phrase, Tarokaja might appear and ask, “What’s so special about this ‘omotenashi float?’”
Venture beyond ‘omotenashi’ for real Japan - The Japan News
The gorgeously decorated Yamahoko parade floats are a cultural property that was revived after enduring the disruption of the warring period, before which each township reportedly once competed to outdo the others creatively.
In a kyogen play titled “Kujizainin” (The Sinner’s Lot) that has been passed down since the Muromachi period (1336-1573), the townspeople gather together to discuss what sort of float to enter into the parade at the Gion Festival.
When a merchant says, “We should make a float of a powerful wild boar,” the apprentice Tarokaja rebuffs him, saying, “That’s not particularly interesting.” A sumo scene and a carp swimming up a waterfall are also rejected. When the nit-picking Tarokaja is asked if he has an idea, he offers the suggestion of “a demon chastising a sinner on a craggy mountain.” All agree, “That would make a good float,” and when they draw lots, the merchant ends up in the sinner’s role.
One can get a sense of the mood of medieval times, when unconventional ideas were esteemed. A kyogen actor who has performed this piece relates, “To build and then destroy is an essential Japanese tradition.” Through a repeated cycle of creation and rebirth, techniques are passed on and ideas refined.
On the international stage, the grand event of the Group of Seven summit was held at Elmau in Germany. Next year, the “Ise-Shima Summit” will be held in Japan, the first time in eight years that Japan has hosted a G-7 summit meeting. Though it is perhaps a bit early, one wonders how Japan will liven things up as the host country.
The first time Japan played host was the Tokyo Summit in 1979, right in the middle of the second oil crisis. A strategy to promote energy conservation was decided, and after it was implemented in Japan, it became the model for the world. The Okinawa Summit in 2000 focused on “IT development,” and the Hokkaido Toyako Summit in 2008 set its sights on “long-term goals for greenhouse gas reduction.” All of these were “good floats,” but it would be hard to say that Japan set a world trend.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is expected to tout the splendor of Japanese culture to the world at a venue near the Ise Grand Shrines. Since the clinching of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, there has been a spreading mood of welcoming foreign visitors to Japan with “omotenashi,” or the Japanese traditional style of hospitality. However, in order for visitors to take an interest in Japanese culture itself, I feel more thought and effort on how to convey it in a way that is easy to understand are necessary.
Simply repeating the same old phrase, Tarokaja might appear and ask, “What’s so special about this ‘omotenashi float?’”
Venture beyond ‘omotenashi’ for real Japan - The Japan News
