Yasaka Shrine
Vermilion-gated Shinto shrine born from a ninth-century plague ritual, now heart of Japan's biggest summer festival.
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About this audio guide
This guide to Yasaka Shrine in Kyoto opens in 869, when a plague sent imperial messengers to this spot to raise sixty-six sacred halberds against a fierce protector god, a ritual that grew into Kyoto's biggest annual festival. It then jumps to 1533, when the city's shogunate tried to ban that festival outright, and the merchants and shopkeepers who governed the shrine's grounds refused to accept the order quietly. Look for the lantern-strung stage inside bearing the names of those same merchant families.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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