Kyoto's Gion Festival in Late Classical and Medieval Times
Actors, Legends, and Meanings
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3484764 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Mark Teeuwen (0009-0007-1126-3147, University of Oslo, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 13 |
| Issue | 6 |
| Pages | 545 |
| Publication date | 2022-06-14 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Religions (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2077-1444 • E-ISSN: 2077-1444 |
| Publisher | MDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT) |
| DOI | 10.3390/rel13060545 |
| OpenAlex | W4282928540 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 8 |
Kyoto's Gion festival has arguably the best-documented history of all festivals (sairei) in Japan, and studies of its development have heavily influenced our understanding of festivals in general. Yet we must expect that our knowledge of this history is partial at most. Extant archives on its late classical and medieval history derive from a narrow group of festival actors, and are therefore intrinsically biased. This article looks at current reconstructions of the festival's origin and development, addressing primarily the following questions: Which groups of actors are the historical record hiding from us? Is there a world of ritual action, beliefs, and concerns that we are missing entirely? Origin legends have been used throughout history to attribute meaning to the festival procedures. Today as in the past, these legends are always accompanied by narratives of continuity: at its core, it is implied, the festival remains unchanged. Such legends reflect the interests of actors and patrons of different ages, and changes in the festival's context have required origin tales to be updated or even replaced. What do such narrative innovations reveal about the festival's changing place in society at different historical junctures? Do such legends contain traces of the activities of actors who have since disappeared, taking their archives with them
Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Epistemology · Extant taxon · Literature · Narrative · Narrative history · Official history · Asian Culture and Media Studies · Financial Crisis of the 21st Century · History · Japanese History and Culture · Philosophy
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,33 |
| Citation span | 2023 - 2023 (1) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |