Exactly one year ago, I wrote a blog post titled “Gion Festival.” But this was not about the grand Kyoto festival with its magnificent yamahoko floats. It was about the very small “Gion Festival” held in our village.
Even so, it is a traditional festival dedicated to Susanoo-no-Mikoto, the same deity worshipped in Kyoto’s Gion Festival. Early this morning, we cut the grass along the village roads, and in the afternoon we made traditional flower decorations and offered them at the shrine.
After the COVID-19 pandemic, the flower decorations had been simplified. This year, however, the formal version returned for the first time in six years. As someone who moved here from outside the village, it was my first time helping to make the decorations in their proper form, and the experience felt very fresh to me.
▼ Last year’s flower decoration, in 2024, was a simplified version.
▼ This year, in 2025, the lower flower umbrella was restored, bringing the decoration back to its original form. The handmade paper flowers, made by the villagers and swaying gently in the breeze, carried a quiet beauty and a modest prayer that felt very different from a large city festival.
▼ The flower decoration is raised by the villagers.
▼ Villagers waiting for the Shinto ritual to begin.
I was told that this used to be an important annual event in which many children took part. But with depopulation and an aging community, the festival has gradually become smaller, and it has been many years since only one flower decoration has been offered.
Even so, for someone like me who was born and raised in the city, everything about it feels new. When I imagine how this small ritual may have continued for hundreds of years, I feel deeply grateful to be allowed to take part in it.
Across Japan, there must be many rituals and local festivals that have already disappeared. I feel it is a great loss when history fades, memories disappear, and the daily lives of people are no longer passed on.
For some reason, I came to live here. Since that is the path I have been given, I quietly hope to do what I can.