Gion 3): former chigo

An article in The Japan News describes the spiritual nature behind the Gion Festival from the viewpoint of a former chigo, the young boy who symbolises purity and innocence at the head of the parade.  The chigo are chosen from Kyoto’s elite tradtional families, and it’s no coincidence that the person featured here is now head of a flower arrangement school.

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Ryuho Sasaoka, former chigo, talks about the spiritual nature of the Gion Festival

Festival for prayer a special inheritance

July 2, 2013  Yuji Washio / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

KYOTO–At the Gion Festival, the Naginata-hoko float always travels at the front of the parade. Ryuho Sasaoka, headmaster of the Kyoto-based Misho-ryu Sasaoka school of flower arrangement, served as one of the young celebrants who ride the float in traditional attire when he was a fifth-grade primary school student.

“Seeing people who put more emphasis on the festival than their work, I recognized the festival was a very important community event,” Sasaoka said. “The very next year, I joined a troupe of musicians for the festival.”

Various events and traditions associated with the floats were registered as a UNESCO intangible cultural heritage in 2009. Sasaoka said their registration had added much to the festival. However, people associated with the festival insist that they are not meant to be a tourist attraction but are a Shinto rite.

“Without people’s prayers, the festival’s original significance is blurred,” he said. “Arranged flowers are meant as a spiritualistic medium in which deities reside. Examples include kadomatsu [New Year’s decorations fashioned from pine branches] and offerings to Shinto and Buddhist deities. The festival is similar. It has continued until today as it is backed by religious devotion.”

He quit the musician troupe as he became busy after becoming the headmaster in November 2011.

As he thought his involvement in the festival was precious, he started offering flowers to a local festival office beginning with last year’s festival. “I used blackberry lily, as I expected its shape, widening toward the end, would symbolize the festival’s continuation and expansion,” he said.

The chigo takes a star role in the Gion procession