Cathrine Pawasarat, author of Gion Festival: Exploring its Mysteries is one of the founders of the Clear Sky Retreat Center in British Columbia, Canada. Her previous book is From Wasteland to Pureland: Reflections on the Path to Awakening. The former Kyoto resident talks with us today about Kyoto’s most famous event, the Gion Festival that happens every July in the former capital.
Books on Asia Podcast 13 Show Notes:
Gion Festival: Exploring its Mysteries, with Catherine Pawasarat
Amy starts out the podcast describing Kyoto’s Gion Festival, the giant floats with the tall towers on the top as they parade down the street among crowds of bystanders. Catherine explains that Kyoto’s neighborhoods work year-round on the preparations and the festival itself lasts the entire month of July.
Catherine lived in Kyoto 20 years and first found out about the festival when she practically ran into one of the gigantic wheels of a float when walking out of her accommodation one day. This led her to start asking questions about the festival and she found that the locals themselves couldn’t exactly explain what it was all about.
So, what is it about? Catherine explains that one role of the festival is to serve as a giant purification ritual and another is to serve as a community bonding event across multiple generations.
What is the status of the festival in the modern context? Some of the major challenges are high real estate prices, and urban flight. Promising developments are also emerging such as neighborhoods using the festivals to rebuild their communities and allowing the public to join in.
Amy asks about the social impact of the Gion Festival and its sustainability to which Catherine discusses some aspects such as the case of the funeboko festival float that looks like a boat, and the plans through high precision digital measurements to recreate and reinstate it. Catherine goes on to talk about why the float is in the shape of a boat and tells a story that involves Empress Jingu.
Catherine says that The Gion Festival: Exploring its Mysteries, covers the many stories behind the floats that are directly related to Japanese legends and myths, including those from the Kojiki, the Nihongi, and the Tale of the Heike. There are 34 floats that participate in the festival and the book dedicates a page to each float and the history behind it.
Amy asks Catherine why she brought out the book in two separate versions, print and e-book, and to elaborate on the differences. They talk about the pros and cons of both print and digital books, and Catherine hopes that by offering both formats she can provide two very different reader experiences. Amy mentions that Cody Poulton, who reviewed the book on the Books on Asia site, was so intrigued with the idea of two different formats that he bought them both.
Catherine says she was inspired by the book Gateway to Japan, a Kodansha guide written by June Kinoshita and Nicholas Palevsky and wanted to provide engrossing information for the sights. She also realizes that guidebooks are heavy to carry around. So the e-book version has a hyperlinks to the other related information on the festival, its components, legends, noh theater, etc..
Amy asks Catherine what it takes to put together a book like this. Catherine said it started with her writing a couple of articles for the Japan Times. One of the articles was about women being able to participate in the musical troupes after an absence of 300 years. This sparks off a discussion on women’s roles in festivals, and although women might not be seen in the procession, they actually do have very important, but more hidden, roles. Catherine talks about how the women are the main representatives of historic families that the floats are oriented around. There are two sides to whether women should participate or even whether they want to participate.
Getting back to writing the book though, Catherine says she lived in one of the Gion Festival neighborhoods for three years so she had a lot of opportunities to become familiar with it, ask questions and take notes. There were challenges to putting together a print book with so many photos while having to be mindful of the price of the book.
Catherine realized there wasn’t much information available in English so wanted to publish a book. That was 15 years ago. She also talks about the Japanese way of doing things, in which one dedicates their whole life to something before they actually “know” anything about it, so while she realized she probably knew more than any native speaker about the Gion Festival, she still felt she had to do more research. This research has been cultivated over 15 years. In the meantime, the self-publishing industry has become robust enough for her to take a chance at self-publishing the book herself. So she went to a writing retreat so she could give herself the time to just write and write and write. She had been taking photos for many years, so she already had something to work from.
Amy says she has heard that at the Gion Festival, tourists are invited into the houses of the locals to see their family heirlooms. Catherine responds by saying that no, this is a false rumor! People are supposed to admire the artworks from he outside. But the doors are left open, so tourists might think they can walk in.
This sparks a discussion on tourist manners in Japan. Catherine says she has a section on do’s and don’ts. She notes that the Kyoto people all volunteer to do these things for the festival, so this generosity really needs to be respected.
Amy, who wrote Amy’s Guide to Best Behavior in Japan, says she always advises people to ask before they do anything in Japan. So even if the doors are open, don’t presume you can just walk in. If you ask first, it allows the person to politely decline, and Catherine points out that it also gives them the opportunity to educate us.
Catherine talks about the two parts of the festival, the “before festival” July 10-17, which is the biggest, with 23 floats, street stalls street food and such, and the “after festival,” July 18-24 with 11 floats.
Catherine says research is important for the festival and she is happy to be a resource for people interested in doing their own research on the festival and need help on where to go to learn more. She talks about the role writers have in helping the festival survive, especially since the popularity of the festival also inherently endangers it, so she wrote the book to help it remain sustainable and to help people understand that it is not just a tourist event but is a spiritual ritual that is put on voluntarily so that we can enjoy it. Having a sense of appreciation and meaning helps ground it and make it a more thoughtful experience for everyone.
Find out more information on Catherine Pawasarat, see her website GionFestival.org and social media channels: Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. Get a free excerpt of the Gion Festival book here: gionfestival.org/booksonasia
Catherine can also be found at planetdharma.com
Lastly, Amy asks Catherine what her favorite books on Japan are:
Gateway to Japan by June Kinoshita
Old Kyoto: Guide to Traditional Shops, Restaurants and Inns, by Diane Durston
Lost Japan by Alex Kerr
Memories of Silk and Straw by Jun’ichi Saga
Engendering Faith: Women and Buddhism in Premodern Japan, Edited by Barbara Ruch
The Books on Asia Podcast is sponsored by Stone Bridge Press, publisher of fine books on Asia for over 30 years. Sign up for the Books on Asia Podcast here.