Ahead of the Gion Festival's Yamahoko Procession (July 17th), the "Hikizome" procession of assembled floats and floats began in the center of Kyoto City on the afternoon of July 12th, 2025. The giant wheels creaked as the floats moved along Shijo Street to the chant of "Enyaraya."
At the Kanko Hoko (Shimogyo Ward, Kyoto City), a priest was invited from Yasaka Shrine (Higashiyama Ward, Kyoto City) and preservation society officials performed a Shinto ritual to purify the floats, after which musicians, leaders, and roofers rode on the floats to begin the first pulling. About 120 local residents and tourists pulled the ropes and made the floats go back and forth between Muromachi and Karasuma on Shijo Street.
The floats began to move under a slightly cloudy sky at 2pm, and strong sunlight shone down on them halfway through. The cartographers bent their upper bodies down so that they were just above the road surface and inserted the caburateko (steel support rods) into the wheels.
Hasegawa Tsuneo (65 years old), the master carpenter, shouted instructions from a baton, and said with a serious expression, "In case it gets extremely hot during the parade, we'll be working closest to the road surface, so we'll take all possible precautions, such as providing water and replenishing salt."
