2025/5/22

On Sunday, May 11, the 2025 Matsunoo Okaeri Festival for Matsunoo Taisha Shrine in Nishikyo Ward, Kyoto was held in grand fashion. Following the participation of Kyoto University of Foreign Studies (KUFS) students in the same festival in April, a total of seven members from KUFS (five students and two faculties) participated in the May Munakata Shrine deity procession.

On the day of the event, the procession set off from Nishi-Shichijo Otabisho and traveled throughout the area, after which participants took part in the old custom of offering Nishinosho-style Chimaki, bamboo-wrapped rice cakes, at Asahi no Mori on the former site of Saiji Temple along with offerings of the special rice dish Akaiza, and took part in a ritual at the Suzaku Otabisho. The portable shrine was carried along an old, former route which passes along Shichijo-dori Boulevard and connects Nishikyogoku, Senshoji Temple, Gun, and Umezu before crossing Matsnoo-bashi Bridge into Matsunoo Taisha Shrine. For the first time in five years, the procession entered Munakata Shrine to the ringing of bells . It was truly a historic moment.

Students carried the portable shrine together with local residents, many of them from the Munakata-sha Junior Chamber. The event served as a valuable opportunity for students to engage in exchanges with local community members while learning about local history and culture and cultivating a stronger spirit of community contribution.

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