On July 17th, the festival of Yasaka Shrine in Higashiyama Ward, Kyoto City, where people pray for the warding off of the plague, the Gion Festival, began the parade of floats in central Kyoto.

The strong midsummer sun poured in, and the temperature in the city exceeded 30 degrees at around 8:00 am. At the Shijo-Karasuma crossing in Shimogyo Ward, where the parade starts, Hikaru Taki (11), a young child, climbs a ladder with a strong man on his shoulders as the naginata-boko, who leads the parade without winning the lottery, turns to face the road and is greeted with thunderous applause from the spectators along the route.