Tokyo Tofu Japan » 時代祭 (Jidai Matsuri)

A little background information first: In the year 794, Emperor Kammu moved the Japanese capital from Heijyo-kyo (today known as Nara) to the city of Heian-kyo. What followed the moving of the capital was the Heian period of Japan, which stands out as a period of great art, literature, and culture. Some of the most famous pieces of Japanese literature come from this period, and most of it was written by women of the court. Up until the Heian period ended in 1184, Japan had enjoyed an almost 400 year period of peace. Heian-kyo (literally peaceful capital) remained the capital of Japan until the Meiji Restoration in 1868, at which time it was transferred to Edo (present day Tokyo). It was then that Heian-kyo was renamed to Kyoto. Every year on the date that the capital was transferred to Edo (October 22), the Jidai Matsuri (Festival of the Eras) takes place. The festival was started in 1895, and was originally created to boost the moral of the people of Kyoto after the loss of the Imperial Court and capital to Tokyo. It is a procession of approximately 2,000 people, dressed in period costumes from the late 1800’s and stretching back to when Heian-kyo was formed, in 784. Today, the main purpose of the festival is the transferring of the mikoshi (portable shrines) honoring the first and last emperors of Japan (Emperors Kammu and Kohei) from the Imperial Palace of Kyoto to Heian Jinju shrine, a shrine built in 1895 on the 1100th anniversary of the founding of Heian-kyo.

The Jidai Matsuri is one of the three most important festivals that take place every year in Kyoto. Because of that and the fact that the Heian period plays a significant role in the parade, was why Cassidy and I decided to trek out into the cold to go to what is really my first truly Japanese culture experience outside of JCMU. The festival procession leaves the Kyoto Imperial Palace at noon, and reaches the Heian Jinja shrine at 4:30pm. The procession itself only goes about 5km (about 1.5 miles), but it takes about 2 hours for the entire procession to pass by. Because of this, we left for Kyoto at 8:30am sharp, expecting to need to get to the parade route early in order to secure some nice seats. The previous day we had bought some little portable travel/camping chairs for about 630yen at Caines, and we both brought along a bunch of homework, so we were prepared for a long wait. When we got to Kyoto station, we had a bit of difficulty (yet again) getting on the right train to reach Marutamachi station on the Keihan line. See, Kyoto station is a train station, while the Keihan line is a subway line. The trains in Japan are mainly operated by Japan Railways (or JR), while the subways are operated by the respective cities. This means that its a pain (at least in Kyoto) to switch from the trains to the subways. Even in Kyoto station, the second largest subway station IN JAPAN, there is no direct route to Marutamachi station, the station nearest to Heian Jinju shrine (and the Kyoto Handicraft Center that we went to several weeks ago).

So after at least 3 line transfers, we finally end up at Marutamachi station, and begin walking towards Heian Jinja shrine. The reason we had chosen to sit near the end of the parade route is because there is a road leading straight to Heian Jinju shrine, and this road beings at the largest tori gate in Japan. Its quite a sight to see. It can literally be seen from miles away. We also figured that if we sat near the end of the parade route, we would have a better chance of getting good seats, since we assumed that half the population of Kyoto would be turning out to watch this. Getting out of Marutamachi station and walking down the road towards the shrine, you wouldn’t have known anything special would be happening in a few hours if you hadn’t known about the parade. Getting closer to the shrine, we found a bunch of tour buses parked everywhere. Still however, no people. Finally getting to Jinja street, we found it to be…..deserted. Granted, a city with 1.5 million people wouldn’t have closed down the heart of the city to host a parade that wasn’t even going to start for another hour, and wouldn’t reach where we were for another 3, but there wasn’t a single person sitting in any of the seating that was set up at the end of the parade route. Getting down to where the reserved seating ended, we found yet again not a single soul who had camped out to get a good seat. So after asking someone if it was ok to sit by the side of the road, we grabbed a primo seat directly under the giant tori, right on the side of the road, and pitched our seats.

Then, the waiting began. We both spent a little time working on homework. Eventually though, it got so cold that each of us had to take turns wandering around buying food or souvenirs in order to warm up. The wind had picked up and the sun was hiding behind some really menacing looking clouds. Luckily though, in Japan you can buy hot drinks from vending machines, so I picked up some hot tea, and also bought these very interesting little pancake-like things that had sweet red bean inside of them. I watched the guy make them right in front of me. Very tasty.

Eventually, around 2pm, a group of women dressed in kimonos with pink topped hats began to dance near the entrance to the shrine. Unfortunately I was stuck in a line for a bathroom, so I pretty much missed it. Cassidy didn’t have any better luck, since you couldn’t see them from where we were sitting. By the time I got back to our seats, the parade procession was stopped at an intersection down the road, waiting for the traffic to be stopped so that they could come through. Eventually they were let through, and the parade started.

The first group to come through were those representing the Meiji period of Japan, which included court noblemen, a fife and drum corps, military troops, and many others. Everyone was wearing costume accurate to their time period, right down to the traditional sandals. Every era that was represented started out the same way: a group of flag bearers would head the group, with signs procaliming what jidai 時代 (era) that they were from, the specific groups would proceed through, each being introduced over a loud speaker, and would be ended by a large group of men dressed in black and blue outfits dating from the Meiji period. A few groups that really stood out were those representing the Lord Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a shogun, who in 1590 rode in a decorated ox-cart to visit the Emperor, Lord Oda Nobunaga, a great army general who made a pilgrimage to Kyoto in 1570 to repair the Imperial Palace and restore peace to the city after the Onin Civil War, the authoress Fujiwara Tameie, costumed in a traveling dress from 1280, and the Yabusame archers, who were skilled at hitting 3 targets in rapid succession. Following the archers came the Heian period group, my favorite era of Japan. This era was represented by the Fujiwara court nobles, who during the Heian period controlled the court and the imperial family completely, the authoress’ of Genji no Monogatari (The Tale of Genji) and Makurano Soshi (The Pillowbook), Murasaki Shikibu and Sei Shonagon. many other famous authors, poets, and entertainers, mostly female, were also represented. Nearing the end of the parade, the portable shrines honoring Emperors Kammu and Kohei passed in front of us on their way to Heian Jinju. After a few more groups passed us by, the procession ended.

From beginning to end the procession took about 2.5 hours to pass in front of us. Our seats were fabulous, with the only negative being that most of the group performances occurred in front of the reserved seats to the left of us, however everyone stopped directly in front of us, and directly before the tori gate, before going forward toward the shrine entrance. The weather wasn’t the greatest either, with it being a lot colder and windier than we thought it would be. It rained at one point during the procession, but luckily it only lasted a few moments. After the parade ended, we hurried up to Heian Jinju, where all the parade participants were going into (horses and all), hoping that we would get in. Unfortunately they closed the gates to the spectators, and we were forced to look through the cracks of the windows to see what they were up to. Everyone seemed to be filing into the main temple building, but we aren’t really sure what they we preparing to do.

Since at this point it was around 5pm and we were both freezing, we decided that we would head back to Kyoto station for food and maybe to wander around the mall a while before returning to Hikone. When we got back to Marutamachi station we decided to try to find an alternate, and easier route back to Kyoto station. We got onto the Keihan subway line and went a few stops past where we had transferred that morning. I had seen on the entrance to the subway in Kyoto station that it was called Shichijo station, and since there was a stop on the Keihan line called Shichijo, we took the train to there thinking that it was the right stop. Well, it wasn’t. We got out of the station and walked outside and found ourselves right back in the shopping/entertaining district that we had visited the last time we were in Kyoto. Walking back inside the station, we bought the cheapest ticket we could and figured we’d just wander around on the trains a while until we found our way back. Once through the gates we found that we were on the wrong side of the platform with no way to get to the other side without exiting the station and buying another ticket. So, we figured that if we took the train one stop, we could get onto the other side of the next platform, then just come back. However, on the ride to the next station, the conductor announced that the station was the transfer to the JR Nara line. Remember that whole explanation about JR lines and subway lines? Well, we figured that if we could get onto the JR line, it would have to go back to Kyoto station, the JR line hub. So, we get out of the station, walk up some stairs and find ourselves on the JR Nara line, one stop away from Kyoto station! 140yen later, we were back where we had started up that morning, in the basement of Kyoto station.

Since we were both starving, we wandered around the underground mall in Kyoto station until we found an inexpensive noodle place, where we both ordered tempura udon. This specific restaurant I had actually been to one year prior on my first trip to Japan, and this time it was just as good. I haven’t been eating out very much here to save money, and I don’t really know how to make much Japanese food, so this was the first bowl of udon I’ve had in probably a month and a half, and it was incredibly delicious. I devoured it down to the last drop.
After eating we crawled the mall a bit, checked out Mother Garden to see if they had gotten in their new shipment of Sirotan stuff (supposedly at the end of the month they are getting in some of the alligator ones), but we didn’t find much new stuff. I did however get this really cute (and cheap!) calendar that has a postcard that you cut out after the month has gone by. And each one has a different Sirotan picture. So cute.
Walking up to group level to go to the station to head back to Hikone, I saw a sign for a Osamu Tezuka museum and gift shop inside of Kyoto station. If you recall the phoenix water clock that I had seen previously in the station, this statue is based on the works of Osamu Tezuka, who is known as the “God of Manga” in Japan. I’m a huge fan of his series, with his manga series on the life of the Buddha being my absolute favorite. Since we had nothing better to do, we started wandering around trying to find the museum/shop. Luckily there are some large murals of Tezkua’s works with arrows pointing, so we figured we follow them. We found the museum/shop shortly thereafter. It wasn’t a very large place, and mainly consisted of a lobby with a few statues of some of Tezuka’s most famous characters (Astro Boy being the most famous) scattered about, and a screening room that cost 200yen to view. There was also a small store, with all kinds of cool Astro Boy stuff (including neat hologram shirts!), and some other items as well. I managed to pick up yet another coin that I could engrave my name on (this time with Tezuka’s Phoenix on it) along with a cool Hi no Tori (Phoenix) clear folder.

After we both engraved the coins that we bought with our names and the current date (Cassidy is now collecting the coins from every place that sells them (I kind of am too )), we went off to catch our train. Luckily we got a seat, and so for the next hour or so we got to relax and look at our pictures. Riding home wasn’t very fun though, as the temperature had dropped to 12 C (55 F) with a stiff wind. Gave me a great look at how fun its going to be riding to the grocery store on my bike in the middle of January. The rest of the night was spent taking a long hot shower, exchanging pictures with Cassidy, and now, blogging.