時代祭, the Historical Festival of Kyoto. 23/10/2011

- So, Jidai Matsuri is basically old people and horses? - asked my Peruvian friend, a very amiable guy whose playful personality can brighten up the gloomiest of days. 

I laughed out loud, as I couldn't think of more perfect description of the actual event. To make it complete, I would only add '... in historical clothing'.

As a serious Kyoto history and art geek, I was preparing to see the 時代祭(jidai matsuri) for weeks. I was scrutinizing the map, investigating the most picturesque places to take pictures from. I read about the historical clothes on the internet, and learned the kanji for them. I even circled the day of the festival on the calendar and was actually crossing out the days to see it, my first ever festival in Japan. And then even more waiting, because the event was postponed... I seriously couldn't believe such an event could be so... well, disappointing, really. And immensely boring. 

We stayed till the end, but most of the crowd dispersed after the first hour. I guess they also had a different idea of 'the festival'. We were taking pictures, but at some point they all started to look exactly the same. The only attraction were the occasional women in beautiful kimono and state-of-the art makeup, but there were surprisingly few of them as compared to the horsemen in more or less the same 'interesting' outfits. To be honest, at some point our main attraction was betting on whether some horse, tickled by the elaborate outfit it was wrapped in would break loose or kick somebody... 

I know. x_x

These are the best of the pictures I managed to take. The procession presented the periods in Japanese history in reverse order, starting from 明治時代, Meiji Jidai (1868-1912) ending on 平安時代, Heian Jidai (794-1185). Of course, in my general awesomeness I already managed to mix the pictures up all together, so no informative order anymore. Sorry! Still hoping you'll enjoy them though!

An fine example of kasane-no irome, the Heian period art of kimono-layering. For more information check this great webpage: http://www.sengokudaimyo.com/garb/garb.ch14.html

Expression on the face of the woman behind the princess - priceless!

And now tell me you didn't think this chap was talking on a mobile ;-)

What an elaborate armour!

These kids in the bright red wigs scared the hell out of me...

On this picture you can see how strong some of the horses were. Some were so impatient that we just waited for an accident to happen...

I think it's one of my favourite pictures - this grandpa looks so pleased!

Very young kids were accompanied by mums/grandmas.

Equipped with cutting-edge technology - historically attired brains behind the entire operation.

A mysterious balloon that appeared over the sky during the Jidai Matsuri... It reads ミラクルひろば, mirakuru hiroba, and that would be 'a miraculous corner' or 'a nook of miracles', but what it could be - I have no idea.

And now time for the digression.

Actually no, not really, as it's on the topic.

Roughly a week before the festival, our great Ninja janitor left a box full of these on the table in the common room: (by the way- how he does it, I have no idea, but he often treats us to something really nice from some shrines/shops/companies. Of course, nothing is impossible for a ninja, but it's still intriguing!).

These were manju, a sweet buns with azuki beans centre, in two colours representing the colours of the national flag. Apparently, it was the gift from the Heian Shrine for us to celebrate the Jidai Matsuri. I was so happy! So pleased, in fact, that I applied all my feeble willpower so as not to eat them the very evening, and I stowed them away, especially for the day of the festival.

What was my horror when after the matsuri I finally sat down to relish on my manju, just to discover THAT:

 Yes. Japanese sweets simply don't keep that long, regardless of how well you actually store them. I felt cheated, but I had no choice but to throw them away, swearing under my breath for being such an idiot and not eating them when I had a chance...

And therefore I still have no idea how the real Japanese manju tastes like :'(((. And I still feel cheated by the bloody Japanese sweets. At least I learned two memorable lessons: first, eat your Japanese sweets the moment you get a hold of them, and second - it's better to do something and regret doing it than not doing it, regretting you haven't done it. 

From now on that shalt be named: The Philosophy of the Rotten Manju.

How we were setting off for 時代祭, the Historical Festival of Kyoto...

To those of you who know something about Kyoto, it might seem weird that one of the three biggest fixed-date Kyoto festivals, 時代祭 (jidai matsuri, lit. a period festival) usually taking place every 22nd of October at 12:00pm sharp could ever be postponed. So was our 管理人, kanrinin, dorm janitor, pet-named Ninja-san for his mysterious set of (dis)appearances and an incredible efficiency in fixing problems before you even realize any existed.

On the morning of 22nd, me and some foreign students gathered by the entry to go and see the matsuri. (Before any of you say anything about that I shouldn't hang out with the foreigners while on my year abroad, I have to defend myself and confirm that I actually tried to see the festival with some Japanese. I gave up after I learned that a/ they didn't even knew what and when it was; b/ they all had part time jobs on the weekend, and c/ most of them had never been to any festival like that. That gave me a lot food for thought, actually, by maybe I will elaborate on in some other time.)

Before we set off for a pretty long walk from our dorm to the 御所, gosho, Imperial Palace, we overheard somebody saying that the event was cancelled. The source of that gossip was one of my classmates, a lovable Spanish girl who is so proficient in Japanese that one often feels like a vermin compared to her. Ergo: somebody who must have got this information from a really reliable source, and foremost, actually understood what the message was. Unsure whether or not to go towards the palace, we decided to consult Ninja-san and his internet-connected laptop. 

－そうですね・・・ (so desu ne, let me see)... I don't see anything about that on the internet.

We found it would be too rude to suggest that he checked again, after all he was A Japanese reading A Japanese webpage, and the only source of our doubt was some gossip from the foreign student. Relieved, we started our journey.

What should have rang a bell were surprisingly few people as for such major thing as the festival. The other was the lack of road closures and detours, which would be quite understandable when there is a slow-moving few-hour long procession planned to stride on some of the main roads of the city. And thirdly, the sympathetic looks and advice given by the people working in コンビ二, conbini, corner shops/ convenience stores, who all referred to the matsuri and all pointed how 残念 (zannen, regrettable) it is. Of course, as the bunch of foreigners too occupied with themselves and their own thoughts and worries, we were blissfully oblivious of all that happening around us. So how disappointed were we to actually discover that on the main gate of the Imperial Palace park:

We simply couldn't understand which weather condition they were actually referring to. The sky wasn't the clearest of the kind and the humidity was making us sweat like pigs, but the temperature was really pleasant and there even was a quite decent sun.

Putting a good face on a bad business, we decided to have a walk around the Imperial Palace grounds and take some pictures at least.

Main gate of the Imperial Palace

Park grounds (the lady in the picture unknown, but for some reasons my camera rendered the colours much better when she was in the picture)

Every park needs at least one pond :-)

And that's when we discovered this:

There is something very 'Tale of Genji' about this picture :-)

Seriously, we might have been angry and sort of personally insulted about not discovering earlier that the festival was cancelled. But when we saw this poor woman, obviously all dressed up for the actual procession, pity-stricken, all our anger and disappointment vanished. We might not have known that the event was cancelled, but she was the part of it and nobody informed her either!

In a nutshell, not only had we walked all the way in vain, we also had to walk all the way back. Fueled by the understandable rage towards Morita-ninja and his computer, we walked briskly back, just to discover... he wasn't in his office. He must have fled to perform one of his secret ninja-only practices the moment he saw us coming. He reappeared in the evening, very apologetic, and assured us that he could not remember any single instance of the 時代祭 getting cancelled or postponed. Ever.

Bearing in mind that he was born in 1947, I guess we should consider ourselves lucky for being a part of such a historical sensation... :-)

Speaking of which, the 'bad weather conditions' did finally arrive at Kyoto around 5pm. It was a really vehement storm, literally a solid wall of water with thunderstorms and really strong wind. Personally, it was the most dramatic weather change I've ever encountered, and I was really glad I wasn't outside. Compared to the typhoon that got me sealed, it felt like a real end of the world. The bad whether ended at 7pm, and all was back to normal again. Just like that. Magic indeed!

ps. The first three sepia pictures are the actual pictures from the festival. I really liked them, but the quality was leaving a lot to be desired. So I decided to play a bit in my trustworthy image processing program, and that's the result! I' m really proud of these, and I think they perfectly reflect the spirit and historical atmosphere of the Jidai Matsuri! ^_^ Much more pictures to come!

Facial expression - priceless!

This actually looks like an old postcard!

If not the sign, it could be taken for an authentic old picture.