Japan Festivals

Japan i fest captures three ceremonies held in Kyoto in the mid-1910s, during the Taishō era, and is particularly notable for the many scenes of the Tayū Dōchū, a traditional, rigidly formalized procession of high-ranking courtesans known as Tayū that took place in the Shimabara district of Kyoto. The first ceremony is a joint ritual of Buddhist and Shintō priests, while the second is the Shimabara Tayū Dōchū procession, featuring the distinctive hairstyles and costumes of these celebrated women. The third and final sequence shows the lively portable-shrine Inari Festival, the most important annual festival at the Fushimi Inari Taisha Shintō shrine.- Mika Tomita