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Gionmatsuri 祇園祭 | ||||||
KEY WORD : art history / paintings | ||||||
An annual
festival at Yasaka Jinja 八坂神社 and surrounding area of Kyoto, and a popular
subject of Japanese genre painting *fuuzokuga
風俗画. The festival is held to honor the god *Gozu Tennou
牛頭天王 (Sk: Gavagriva), the tutelary deity of the Jetavana monastery
Gionshouja 祇園精舎 in India and god of good health. In 869, to bring relief
from an epidemic, a portable shrine and 66 tall spears hoko 鉾 representing
the provinces were carried to a pond south of the Imperial Palace ground,
and dipped in as supplication to halt the plague. By the late 10c the festival
had become an annual event sponsored by the shrine and was held on the 14th
day of the Sixth month. Canceled during the Ounin 応仁 war (1467-77) and the
following decades, the Gion festival was revived by merchants and townspeople
in the 16c, who built and maintained floats that expressed pride in their
neighbourhoods and professions. Currently held in July, events span the
entire month but climax on the seventeenth with a parade of wheeled yamaboko
山鉾 (floats with spear-like poles) filled with musicians playing the distinctive
gion bayashi 祇園囃子 music and the smaller yama 山 floats, originally
carried, displaying life-size images of famous historical and legendary
figures. Both the yamaboko 山鉾 and yama are usually curtained
with antique or modern tapestries from Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and,
most frequently, silk brocade produced by the local textile industry, which
are intended to display their skill and technical innovations. The Gion festival is often depicted with ample detail in *rakuchuu
rakugai-zu 洛中洛外図 screens, and in screens and picture scrolls *emaki
絵巻 devoted solely to the festival, gion sairei-zu 祇園祭礼図. Since the Edo
period, at festival time, it has been customary for Kyoto families in Hokomachi
鉾町 to display their gion sairei-zu screens as well as other paintings
and tapestries in the front of their homes and businesses . |
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(C)2001 Japanese Architecture and Art Net Users System. No reproduction or republication without written permission. 掲載のテキスト・写真・イラストなど、全てのコンテンツの無断複製・転載を禁じます。 |
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