Since the end of the Heian period, the Yamashina family has inherited the "Yamashina School of Emondo," a family profession in Kyoto that is responsible for the tailoring and wearing of court attire for the nobility. Tokichika Yamashina, the young head of the family, who is in his 30th generation since the founder, will unravel the occasional events that have taken place at the Imperial Court and in the society of the nobility, as well as the culture that has been handed down through the ages, along with costumes and ancient documents remaining in the Yamashina family.
The design of the vertical and distant diamonds is woven with a gauze called 'Kusoori', and the purple fabric is transparent and cool. When the Emperor wore his Imperial court robes in the summer, he wore this kimono underneath.
When I was little, I often played in the grounds of Kamigamo Shrine.
Around the long weekend in early May, the news begins to cover various events related to both Shimogamo and Kamigamo shrines, and it feels like the Kamo Festival (Aoi Festival) on the 5th is fast approaching. When I was little, my maternal grandfather was the chief priest of Kamigamo Shrine, so I often spent my days off playing at the chief priest's housing. The grounds were rich in nature and my playground was where I would feed carrots to the sacred horses at the Shinmesha stables and dip in the Nara Stream that runs through the shrine grounds.
I remember watching horse races on May 5th while being piggybacked. I knew nothing about the rituals when I was little, and just enjoyed the races, but the dynamic movements of the horses and their jockeys, known as "nojiri," and the cheers of the spectators remain in my memory as being very realistic.
This is the moment when the left and right jockeys inside the cage called "Rachi" are about to take off. Horse racing originated from a ceremony held on May 5th at the Butokuden Hall in the Imperial Palace to pray for peace and bountiful harvests, and the jockeys' jockeys are divided into left and right jockeys and compete. The jockeys' costumes are those of Konoefu officials who perform dance and music, and the left jockey wears red and the right jockey wears blue.
The Kamo Festival was one of the events that encouraged the people of the dynasty to change clothes.
The Kamo Festival is one of the three major festivals in Kyoto along with the Gion Festival and the Jidai Festival, and is one of the three highly prestigious festivals known as the Three Imperial Festivals (Kasuga Festival, Kamo Festival, and Iwashimizu Festival). An Imperial Festival is a festival held by an Imperial envoy sent by the Emperor. It was originally held on the day of the Rooster in the fourth month of the lunar calendar, but is now celebrated on May 4th.
As April 4st on the lunar calendar is the time when people change into their summer clothes, the time when the Saio's purification rituals were performed and the Kamo Festival were considered events that evoked the change of clothes by the people of the court in the past. This is truly a festival that represents early summer in Kyoto, and it is an opportunity to experience the atmosphere of the Imperial Palace culture by seeing people dressed in various types of gorgeous court attire and processions of oxcarts.
Saio-dai, dressed in a twelve-layered ceremonial kimono, rides in a palanquin. Saio-dai is an unmarried princess who served the Kamo Shrine, and takes her place. Since the women's procession was added in 1956, she has been the center of attention every year. The photo shows last year's Kamo Festival.
This is a list written when preparing summer attire and folding screens for ladies-in-waiting. By the fourth month of the lunar calendar, the palace furniture and other items were changed to summer specifications. ©Yamashina
On the day of the Kamo Festival, the people visit the Imperial Palace and are very busy putting on their formal attire (kimono-in)
On the day of the Kamo Festival, the attendants arrive at the Imperial Palace early in the morning and dress in their formal attire (imon) in each room. After the festival procession departs, they head ahead to Shimogamo Shrine and Kamigamo Shrine to await the procession's arrival. The imon staff help with changing shoes and putting on and taking off the costumes, and the ritual and breaks are well organized within the limited time.
When all the ceremonies are over and we return to the Imperial Palace, the sun is setting. This is an elegant festival that takes an entire day, but it is also thanks to the efforts of many people behind the scenes, each with their own specialty, that this festival is truly worthwhile.
Furthermore, former nobles who remain in Kyoto today take turns serving as Konoe Shidai, messengers for the emperor, and Uchino Shi, who carry the Imperial Celebration Text. Among those who attend the festival are descendants of families who served the former shrines, the imperial court, and nobles for generations, and every year I realize that such historical connections continue to exist even as times change.
Some people return to Kyoto to serve in the festival, and the festival has great significance as a place to maintain community ties and reaffirm local ties.
This is a waka poem by Uematsu Masamoto (1827-1876), a nobleman of the late Edo period. He writes about the Aoi of Kamiyama at Kamigamo Shrine, "Who could have done this for the sake of this long and dreary world?" The Uematsu family continues to be the head of the Japanese Ikebana School, Shogetsudo Koryu, which follows the tradition of offering flowers to the Imperial Court. ©Yamashina
The image of the Konoe Shidai riding on horseback during the Kamo Festival. This is a photo of my father playing that role last year. A hollyhock is attached to the crown. After changing into a summer outfit, the costume will be changed to summer wear. The black keshibo (a robe) worn on top is made of a gauze fabric called kokuori, and looks cool, but since the road ceremony involves moving around on horseback, the heat during the day is unavoidable.
During the Edo period, the ancestors of the Yamashina family were apparently busy on the day of the Kamo Festival.
Looking at the diaries of our ancestors from the Edo period, we see records of them creating festival costumes at the request of nobles selected by the Imperial Guards, and arranging the costumes on the day, so it seems that our ancestors were very busy at the time.
Since the Kamo Festival was revived in the early Edo period, our family has provided annually "akome" costumes, which are bestowed as a reward to nobles who become imperial envoys for the Kamo Festival. Akome is worn as an inner garment under men's costumes. The culture of bestowing costumes has disappeared in modern times, but at the Kasuga Festival, one of the three imperial festivals, the precious gesture of the imperial envoy receiving the akome and draping it over his shoulders remains.
This is an origami that describes the preparation of the kimono that the imperial envoy for the Kamo Festival will receive on the day. Preparations usually begin in February, and the custom was to prepare it the day before the festival. ©Yamashina
What makes the Kamo Festival in the Edo period different from today is that in addition to the "Roto no Gi" (Roadside Ceremony) on the way to the shrine and the "Shato no Gi" (Shatou Ceremony) held within the shrine, there was also the "Imperial Ceremony". The Emperor would come out dressed in a traditional attire called "Ohikinogi" and would look through a blind at the Bugaku (traditional Japanese dance) and decorated horses that were dedicated to Kamo Shrine before the procession departed from the Imperial Palace. He would then move down a temporary corridor to a viewing area set up at the South Gate (Kenreimon) and sometimes watch the procession depart.
Perhaps there was a system in place in imperial court society to ensure the resilience of cultural transmission...
The Kamo Festival has been passed down over three major interruptions: after the Onin War, after the Meiji Restoration, and during and after the war. Each time, our predecessors conducted historical research, and gradually the current form of the festival took shape. By consciously passing on to future generations materials to refer back to, such as the records of those involved in the revival of the festival, a long-term perspective exists that allows it to be revived at any time when the necessary conditions and people's wishes are met. It seems that court society has a key system that can guarantee the resilience of cultural transmission.
This is a waka poem handwritten by Nomiya Sadamoto (1669-1711), a nobleman and scholar of Japanese classics from the early to mid-Edo period. It reads, "Suetowokiharu no miyama ni ugokinaki, how many thousand generations will pass on to me the reign of the emperor?" Nomiya Sadamoto was a nobleman who conducted extensive research into reviving the Kamo Festival, which had ceased after the Onin War. He is known for his efforts in reviving the festival in 1694 (Genroku 7), including attending as an imperial envoy himself. ©Yamashina
What was it like when the Kamo Festival was discontinued? If you read the diary of your ancestors from that time, you will find the following related articles.
“Kotetsugukyoki” April 14th, Tenbun 19 (1550)
"Kamo Shrine's Minister Sukeharu, Minister Hideyuki, and Aoi Katsura and others will be sent to celebrate the festival tomorrow."
According to the diary, even during the Warring States period, when the Kamo Festival was discontinued, members of the Kamo Shrine family would deliver hollyhock leaves and katsura branches to homes the day before the festival. They also arrived at the Imperial Palace, and there are records of them being hung on blinds and other decorations. Even in an era when there were no ceremonies or processions at the Imperial Palace, these symbols, which confirmed the connection with the ancient Kamo Shrine and evoked the atmosphere of the festival, must have been welcome gifts.
Aoi means "Afuhi (meeting day)." It was thought to be the day when you would meet a god or a loved one.
Since ancient times, the representative flower of the Kamo Festival, the hollyhock, has also been used to mean "Afuhi (the day of meeting)" and has been written about in waka poetry as a day to meet gods and loved ones. Recently, I have been reminded of people who have passed away and taught me many things during the festival, and I feel that it is also a day to meet such ancestors.
This is a waka poem written by Sanjo Saneman (1802-1859). It contains an old poem about Ki no Tsurayuki's Aoi Festival, "Everyone is wearing wigs and swinging a thousand swords, facing the gods." The two-leaf hollyhock, the sacred crest of Kamo Shrine, is printed on the poem. Even the decoration shows the attention to detail.
Yamashina Tokichika / Young head of the Yamashina school of kimono. Born in Kyoto in 1995, he completed his master's course at the Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies at Kyoto University. He is the 30th successor to the Yamashina family (former nobles) who have passed down the tradition of preparing and wearing "shozoku", the attire worn at the Imperial Court for generations. He performs kimono at the three imperial festivals "Kasuga Festival", "Kamo Festival", and "Iwashimizu Festival", as well as the "Reiwa Grand Ceremony". He also appears in various media, gives lectures to companies, government agencies, and cultural organizations, plans exhibitions, and conducts customs research for history programs. He is involved in a wide range of activities to spread the tradition of Imperial Palace culture, serving as the representative director of the Yamashina Yusoku Research Institute and a researcher at the Doshisha University Imperial Court Culture Research Center.
Photos by Azusa Todoroki (bowpluskyoto)
Stories
Premium X
The 30th young head of the Yamashina School of Imondo, Yamashina Genchika…
Premium X
