Japan Photo Journal: Kyoto lantern makers staying upbeat despite pandemic difficulties
July 10, 2021 (Mainichi Japan)
(Mainichi/Kazuki Yamazaki) Production of chochin lanterns for Kyoto s famed Gion Festival is in full swing at the Okugawa Lantern Factory in the city s Shimogyo Ward, established in the mid-Edo period (1603-1867). The studio s craftspeople are keeping upbeat despite declining orders due to the coronavirus pandemic. With the Gion Festival s yamahoko float parade canceled for the second consecutive year this summer, only around 800 lanterns will adorn shopping streets and Yasaka Shrine a quarter of a normal year s number and only about 50 komagata chochin lanterns 10% of the usual figure will be attached to floats. At the studio, six people craft lanterns by hand for the entire process, from making frames to painting patterns. Tadashi Okugawa, 66, is the eighth generation of his family to run the business. I hope the coronavirus will disappear soon a
Spectators crowd around lantern-lit floats, built along Shijo-dori street in Kyoto’s Shimogyo Ward, during the Yoiyama (festival eve) period of the Gion Festival on July 16, 2018. (Yoshiko Sato)
KYOTO The annual Gion Festival that started on July 1 in the ancient capital will not have its climactic processions of massive, decorative floats the main highlight of the festival for the second consecutive year due to the pandemic.
But even with the parades called off, some of the floats will still be assembled for the first time in two years, festival officials said, to keep the traditional float-building technique alive.
The central government has designated the “nawa garami” (rope tying) method used to hold the components together as an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property.