GION-MATSURI - 'Gion Festival'

The Gion Festival is one of my favourite festivals in Kyoto, being one of the most famous festivals in Japan.

This festival originated as a purification ritual (goryo-e) to pacify the gods thought to cause fire, floods and earthquakes.
In 869, people in Kyoto suffered from plague and pestilence. It was believed that the cause was the rampaging deity Gozu Tenno. Therefore emperor Seiwa ordered for the citizen of Kyoto to pray to the God of the Yasaka Shrine, Susanoo-no-Mikoto and decorated halberds, along with the portable shrines (MIKOSHI) from Yasaka Shrine. (This practice will be repeated wherever an outbreak occurred.)
In 970, it was declare officially an annual event and has since seldom been broken.

Although the many rituals and preparations for the festival began in July 1st, the celebrations official has started today with MIKOs' ritual in the Yasaka Shirine.

MIKO traditions date back to the ancient Jomon era and were female, prophets / shaman, that were able to convey the words of the KAMI, similar as in Ancient Greece (the pythia or sibyl). Miko were important social figure and associated with the ruling class.

Nowadays A MIKO is consider the Shrine-Maiden and in some cases a supplementary priestess. Her role in the shrine is to perform tasks, ranging from sacred cleansing to performing the KAGURA, 'GOD-ENTERTAINMENT', a sacred dance, as in the picture above.

KAGURA is a Shinto theatrical dance with it roots in NOH dedicated to the KAMI-GAKARI, 'oracular divination' and CHINKON, 'spirit pacification'.

GION : is a district of Kyoto that originally developed in the Middle Ages, around the Yasaka Shrine. The district was mainly built to provide help to travellers to the shrine. It eventually evolved to become one of the most exclusive and well-known GEISHA districts in all of Japan.

Notice the GEIKO and MAIKO roots form SHINTO by comparing their makeup with the MIKO's one.