Yasaka Jinja shrine （八坂神社）

Yasaka-Jinja Shrine is located in Gion district in Kyoto city, where you can see many Geisha walking in a traditional kimono.  This is a headquarter of the whole "Yasaka" shrines throughout Japan.

The shrine officially says in its website that the shrine's religious service can be dated back to 656 AD when a commissionaire called "Iri-shi"（伊利之）from Korea（高麗） established a building for the deity who he had worshiped in a place where is now in a part of Kyoto city. Then, it moved to the current venue.

You may ask why Korean. The reason can be found in a myth written in the Nihon-shoki  (the oldest chronicles of Japan). In the story, the shrine's main deity "Susa-no-oh"（素戔嗚尊） was expelled from the heaven governed by his sister Amaterasu (the great ancestor of the Emperor) down to the earth after he did many brutal things (defined as "sins of the heaven deities"/天つ罪). In the story, he came down firstly to a part of Silla（新羅：one of the three ancient nations in the Korean peninsula) and then came to Japan with his son "Iso-takeru"（五十猛)  on a ocean vessel.

(You can see my previous article for more information about this myth.)

Iri-shi's decedent had been the shrine's head priest, gaining great political/financial status until the Meiji government finally terminated its heredity as a part of its political restoration process in 1867 AD.


Gion Festival （祇園祭）
Gion festival is the shrine's most important event lasting for more than one week in the mid of July every year, for which many decorated floats are towed throughout Kyoto city.

float

The festival's core event comes after the float parade; portable shrines. The three portable shrines in which each of the shinr's three deities (Susa-no-oh, his wife and children) are summoned departs on July 17 from the shrine's main alter after a ritual ceremony for summoning is held.

Then, the portable shrines are carried on the carriers' shoulders throughout the city and stop at various "Otabi-jo"（御旅所）or the shrine's villas built at several spots temporarily for the festival. They spend seven nights at those "Otabi-jo" and on the seventh day (July 24), the portables are carried back to the shrine in a parade marshaled by "Ochigo"（お稚児） or children chosen for the festival mainly from wealthy or noble families based in Kyoto.

Lifting a curse
The festival is originated in "Goryo-e"（御霊会）, a ritual ceremony the shrine started in 853 AD for reposing souls which were seen to have hatreds and will to cause destruction to the world where people who had done something bad to the souls lived. 

Kyoto is in a basin surrounded by mountain, so it tends to be heated much in summer. At a time when the ceremony was firstly held, the heat caused plague. With no modern medical treatments, people suffered and was intimidated. Having a number of death, it was rather natural for people to think that a soul with hatred came to haunt them, resulting in the plague.

As mentioned above, Susa-no-oh is seen a brutal, vehement deity in Japan's mythology as he committed many sins in the heaven of his elder sister. With this background, people in Kyoto, including the Emperor and its imperial court, thought his soul may have been the cause of plague; too active to curse.
The festival was stared for reposing his vehement soul in an attempt to lift the curse.

Shrine and the imperial court

When people in Kyoto suffered from severe plague in 877 AD, the imperial court conducted its religious ceremony for some spiritual guides. Upon its result, the court sent delegates to the shrine to pray for the deity and the plague stopped. The Emperor of the time decided to give the shrine a vast territory as a reward, and enlisted it in the twenty-two favorite shrines worshiped by the imperial court.  Since then, the shrine attracted worships from the imperial court and local people.