Gion Matsuri first took place in 869, with a procession to pray to the gods enshrined at Yasaka-jinja for purification and protection from epidemics. Designed as a "parade of the provinces" of sorts, with one 'spear' for each province, today there are two parades, 前祭 saki-matsuri on 17 July consisting of 23 floats, and 後祭 ato-matsuri on 24 July with 11 floats. There are two types of floats: 鉾 hoko, or 'spears', the taller floats on wheels as shown in the video and the photo above, and smaller 山 yama, or 'hills', or 傘 kasa, 'umbrellas', transporting mikoshi miniature shrines, which tend to be carried, as shown below.

The floats are richly decorated with wonderful tapestries. One would expect these to be traditional Japanese motifs dating back to the festival's origins, but you'd be mistaken. For example, the two tapestries featured below, "Egypt" and "Baghdad", are definitely not traditional Japanese!

They are more reminiscent of 19th-century European orientalist imagery and... well, they are. The associations which operate the Gion Matsuri floats have collected tapestries (link to gionmatsuri.org article) from various time periods and locations, including 19th-century Europe. I remember the Egypt one being from Belgium, but I can't find the source again. Below, we have two examples with a more classic Japanese feel.

As mentioned in my previous post, Gion Matsuri was, for a while, unfinished business for me. On my first trip I'd left Kyôto two days before the parade, and had only seen the run-up. Seven years later, I had the opportunity to return to Kyôto in July and witness the main event. I had been concerned about the crowds, but arriving early and looking to watch from the middle of Kawaramachi-dôri, the mid point of the course, I had no trouble securing a spot to spectate, and it wasn't all that busy in that area, I could still walk around and change vantage point with little difficulty. A wonderful, colourful, vibrant moment, I'm glad I went back for!