The Yamahoko float processions, the climax event of Kyoto's Gion Festival, will be canceled this summer, its organizers, the Yasaka Shrine and the Gion Matsuri Yamahoko Rengo-kai, announced Monday.
The processions of one of the nation's three major festivals were to be held on July 17 and July 24.
Also on Monday, the operator of the Hakata Gion Yamakasa Festival announced that it would cancel the festival, which is a summer tradition in Fukuoka.
The spread of the new coronavirus has forced major events and festivals to be canceled one after another.
It will be the first time in 58 years that Kyoto's Yamahoko processions have been canceled. The last time was in 1962 due to Hankyu Railway's extension work. Whether to carry out the "Yamahoko tate" float-building, which takes place at the city's center including the Shijo-dori avenue from early July to mid-July, will also be decided by early June, depending on the situation of the epidemic.
The Yoiyama festival to be held the night before the processions as well as the mikoshi parade at the Yasaka Shrine, which starts in the evening on the day of the Yamahoko processions, will be also canceled.
At a press conference in Kyoto, Rengo-kai Chairman Ikujiro Kimura, 71, said, "It's a tough decision, but we have to avoid having many people come out no matter what."
The Hakata Gion Yamakasa Festival has a history of approximately 780 years and is registered as a UNESCO intangible cultural heritage. Every year from July 1-15, the festival attracts about 3 million tourists. According to the organizer, it will be the first such cancellation since the Pacific War broke out and was fully resumed in 1949.
The spread of the virus has already forced organizers to cancel the Aoi Festival in Kyoto and the Aomori Nebuta Festival in Aomori.
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