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Enjoying the evening cool at Gojo-zaka Toki Matsuri Festival



It is natural that it is hot in the summer of Kyoto, but it is also terribly hot this year. I did not want to go out in daytime because too hot. However, the heat is at least better in the night than the daytime. Therefore, I went out to Gojo-zaka Toki (Pottery) Matsuri Festival that had been gone on until 11 PM for enjoying the evening cool.


Gojo-zaka Toki Matsuri Festival is held at Gojo-zaka slope (between Kawabata street and Higashioji street of Gojo street) near Kiyomizu-dera temple on 7th-10th August every year. It is a huge outdoor earthenware and ceramic fair of the nationwide. Really, it is a grand festival of Wakamiya Hachimangu Shrine and Touki-jinjya shrine where sacred to the god of pottery. About 500 stalls are opened, and there are entertainments like a parade of a portable shrine, so it crowds with a lot of people.



There was a stall that sold various earthenwares of 200 yen uniform price, though there was a shop that displayed an expensive Kiyomizu ware (Kyo ware) of 10,000 yen or more, too. The Kiyomizu ware and the pottery which had been brought together from the local regions were sold by 20-30 % discounts of the market price. I found a signboard of the Bizen ware, the Arita ware, the Hagi ware, the Sigaraki ware, the Tokoname ware, and the Mino pottery. And, I saw also the name of a place;
Sapporo, Noto, Nakatsugawa, and Yatugatake. There were young creator’s works, too.

I was able to see various potteries with the feature.


The Kiyomizu ware (Kyo ware) is generic names of pottery where all earthenware and the porcelain made in Kyoto are included. The feature of Kiyomizu ware is difficult to say in a word. It is said that it depends on the following reasons. One reason is that because potteries had been produced for the order of “Kuge (the court noble)” and “Chajin (the expert in the tea ceremony)” for a long time, the techniques of the same number as the number of potters had been made. For example, there are a lot of the techniques from the well-baked earthenware of the earth color to the vivid color porcelain. And the porcelain where the pattern is drawn with blue dyestuff is called “Some-tsuke”.



Another reason is to match the mud (the raw material) with which it bought in some regions for purpose because it cannot be gotten in Kyoto, and to have used it. If daring to say, the lightness and a comfortable using because of handmade are features of the Kiyomizu ware. The hand-written appearance of solidity and the design that seems to be Kyoto might be its feature also.


In Wakamiya Hachimangu Shrine that was on the way of Gojo-zaka slope, I found the Mikoshi (a portable shrine) that was paraded around there on August 8. It was an unusual Mikoshi with which pottery dishes were decorated. And, the big offertory box (a huge jar)! Of course it was made from pottery.


It is also said that the Toki Matsuri Festival has been started for the sake of the people who come to “Rokudo-Mairi” in Rokudo-chinno-ji Temple in the north of Gojo-zaka slope. “Rokudo-Mairi” is an event that the people worship at a temple and invite ancestor’s spirits of the dead into the house on 7th-10th August before Bon Festival. The sounds of which visitors toll a bell echo throughout the temple. It is one of the customary events of summer of Kyoto.


How about going to Toki Matsuri Festival and Rokudo-Mairi to enjoying the evening cool of hot Kyoto in summer?

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August 18, 2007 - 4:47 pm
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Post by Yuk:
I live at Kyoto machiya that is a traditional wooden townhouse in Kyoto.


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