Aoi Matsuri Festival (Part 1)

Aoi Matsuri is one of the three biggest festivals in Kyoto and takes place on May 15th. The main attraction is a procession of 511 people in Japanese ancient court costumes, decorated with hollyhock leaves. (Aoi = hollyhock)

The procession starts at 10:30AM from Kyoto Imperial Palace and goes to Shimogamo Shrine, and to Kamigamo Shrine.

I arrived at Imperial Palace at 9AM to secure the place. And I took almost 200 photos!

The front of the procession are mounted policemen of Kyoto.



This may be a "Dosanko" horse, a native to Hokkaido.

Everybody has hollyhock leaves on their costumes.