Kyoto is a city whose streets are laid out in a grid pattern. At the eastern end of Shijō-dōri, one of the city’s main east-west arteries, lies Yasaka Shrine. A short flight of stone steps at the end ...

Construction for Kyoto’s Yasaka Shrine was founded in the seventh century, and it sits right in the middle of Gion, the city’s geisha quarter. That combination of cultural significance and ...

KYOTO -- The annual summer Gion Festival began in Japan's ancient capital on July 1, with a child in the costume of a "divine messenger" performing a ritual at Yasaka Shrine to pray for the safety of ...

KYOTO -- The Gion Festival, one of the three major festivals in Japan, started in this ancient capital on July 1. At Yasaka Shrine, a ritual was held to pray for the safety of the event by a child who ...

TOKYO >> A gathering for a karuta card-matching game traditionally played during the new year was held at Yasaka Shrine in Kyoto’s Higashiyama ward, the first such event in the three years since the ...

The Gion Festival, which celebrates the Yasaka Shrine in Kyoto, is touted as the biggest festival in Japan – and for a country as rife with festivals as this one, it's really saying something. Part of ...

On Wednesday – and every year on July 17 – a stream of portable shrines (mikoshi) flowed through Kyoto as part of the festivities of what may be Japan’s most famous festival: the Gion Matsuri, ...

On the first Friday and Saturday of July, the Ushitsu Yasaka Shrine on the Noto Peninsula holds its Abare Festival. Originally a way to show gratitude to the gods for curing the plague in the Edo ...

In July, Kyoto celebrates the historic Gion Matsuri festival, one of Japan’s most famous and long-running traditions. With origins dating back to 869, the event draws more than one million people each ...