This heat is a trial, isn’t it? I couldn’t possibly have gone to the Gion festival, but the other day I found a great festival for the hot weather. It’s the foot-washing festival at Shimogamo shrine in Kyoto.
After you enter the shrine, there is a little stream that you wade into up to your knees, while holding a tiny candle. The water is really icy cold, and so it feels fabulous in this temperature. You leave your candle behind at the end of the stream. Then you can drink some cold spring water. It only costs 200 yen to get into the part of the shrine where the stream is, and that’s money well spent.
The festival is supposed to protect the health of your feet and legs, and you can buy various charms and amulets, and other goods after you’ve been through the river.
The festival is called Mitarashi matsuri in Japanese, with the Chinese characters for ‘mitarashi’ being ‘foot’ and ‘wash’. My Japanese friend told me that the expression, “wash my feet”, means to retire from doing a certain job or role, especially something like being a member of the yakuza, so the ceremony also includes the idea of moving on from something. I hadn’t heard that expression before, but certainly many religions have foot-washing ceremonies as a form of ritual purification.
The shrine opens at 5:30am and the festival continues till 10:30pm. It is well worth braving the heat for.
After you enter the shrine, there is a little stream that you wade into up to your knees, while holding a tiny candle. The water is really icy cold, and so it feels fabulous in this temperature. You leave your candle behind at the end of the stream. Then you can drink some cold spring water. It only costs 200 yen to get into the part of the shrine where the stream is, and that’s money well spent.
The festival is supposed to protect the health of your feet and legs, and you can buy various charms and amulets, and other goods after you’ve been through the river.
The festival is called Mitarashi matsuri in Japanese, with the Chinese characters for ‘mitarashi’ being ‘foot’ and ‘wash’. My Japanese friend told me that the expression, “wash my feet”, means to retire from doing a certain job or role, especially something like being a member of the yakuza, so the ceremony also includes the idea of moving on from something. I hadn’t heard that expression before, but certainly many religions have foot-washing ceremonies as a form of ritual purification.
The shrine opens at 5:30am and the festival continues till 10:30pm. It is well worth braving the heat for.
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コメント(4)
I love mitarashi dango, and when I went into the festival I noticed that they were on sale, so I decided to have some on my way out. Unfortunately, when I came out of the shrine, the workers on the stall were just closing up, and they had completely sold out!! I can hardly say how disappointed I was！ I envy you, ｶﾞﾁｬﾋﾟﾝ！
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