Hinamatsuri (Hina-nagashi, Shimogamo Shrine, Kyoto) - March 3
The Japanese Doll Festival (Hina-matsuri), or Girl’s Day, is held on March 3. Platforms covered with a red carpet are used to display a set of ornamental dolls (hina-ningyō) representing the Emperor, Empress, attendants, and musicians in traditional court dress of the Heian period.
The custom of displaying dolls began during the Heian period. Formerly, people believed the dolls possessed the power to contain bad spirits. Hinamatsuri traces its origins to an ancient Japanese custom called hina-nagashi (lit. “doll floating”), in which straw hina dolls are set afloat on a boat and sent down a river to the sea, supposedly taking troubles or bad spirits with them.
The Shimogamo Shrine (part of the Kamo Shrine complex in Kyoto) celebrates the Nagashibina by floating these dolls between the Takano and Kamo Rivers to pray for the safety of children.(source)
Baikasai (梅花祭) - February 25th - Hanamachi: Kamishichiken
Baikaisai, or the Plum Blossom Festival, is held at Kitano Tenmangu Shrine in Kyoto every February to honor the memory of the deified patron saint of literature, Sugawara Michizane. Celebrating the end of winter and the coming spring, an outdoor tea ceremony is held by the maiko and geiko of the Kamishichiken district.
Ebisu festival - Jan 8th-12th
This festival is held at many shrines, particularly in Kansai. Ebisu, familiarly called “Ebessan” in the Kansai dialect, is the patron deity of business as well as of fisheries. A good luck bamboo branch decorated with lots of lucky items such as old, oval gold coins, sea bream and rice bales is a highly popular charm for business prosperity. This is a grand event which has continued ever since the Edo Period (17th-19th Century). January 10th is the main festival day, and the 9th is called the Eve of Ebisu, while the 11th is known as the “Last Helping of Luck.” (source)
Shigyoshiki - January 7th & 9th - Hanamachi: Gion Kobu, Gion Higashi, Pontocho, Kamishichiken, Miyagawacho
Shigyoshiki is the annual (traditional) opening ceremony in Kyoto that marks the start of another year for Kyoto’s Geiko and Maiko. Geiko and Maiko gather in their local hanamachi wearing formal black kimono and renew their vows for the new year. Following the ceremony, the Maiko and Geiko visit the local tea houses and business establishments to wish the start of an auspicious and prosperous new year.
Konkon chiki was a popular New Year’s game in the Meiji period (1868 – 1912). The object of the game was to grab the cup of sake before your hand was caught by the slip knot.
Vintage maiko new year postcards (Maiko on the left: Mineko Iwasaki)
Maiko Miena and Maiko Toshichika
Yachiyo Inoue V at kotohajime (2011), presenting her geiko and maiko students with new fans for them to use in the coming year. The color of the fan corresponds to the rank of the students.
In return the students gift her okagamisan (a pair of pounded glutinous rice cakes) and a red and white envelope containing money (the amount corresponds to the status of the student in the school hierarchy: less for maiko, more for senior geiko.)
