The 2023 Gion Festival started on July 1st. This year, for the first time in four years, Shinto rituals such as the Yamaboko event and Mikoshi parade, which had been canceled or downsized until last year due to the novel coronavirus, will be held as usual. At Yasaka-jinja Shrine (Higashiyama Ward, Kyoto City), the naginata-hoko chigo attended the 'Osendo no Gi' and prayed for the safety of the festival.
Before 10:00 a.m., Chigo Hikaru Taki (age 11), a sixth-year student at Doshisha Elementary School, wears a cool costume, and Sosuke Takada (age 11), who is bald, is at Notre Dame Gakuin. Sixth grade elementary school student Takuya Ishizumi (age 10), a fifth grader at Doshisha Elementary School, entered the main hall through the South Tower Gate. With a tense expression, he reported that he would serve as a child in front of the gods. Under a vermilion umbrella in the rain, about 30 members of the Naginata Hoko Preservation Society and other members slowly walked around the main shrine three times and put their hands together.
In each Yamahoko town, the ritual "Kippu-iri" was held at the beginning of the Shinto ritual.
