Spring at Kitano Tenman-gu, Kyoto

Baikasai: Plum Blossom Festival

Julian Bohler Dec 20, 2013 - 1 min read

<p>Plum blossoms have been celebrated in Japanese poetry since the 8th century</p>

<p>It is not unusual to see people wearing kimono at traditional festivals in Kyoto</p>

<p>A special guest hides among the crowd of visitors</p>

<p>An extra fee will allow you to sit on a wooden mat, closer from where the matcha tea is being prepared</p>

<p>Geiko and maiko from the neighbouring geisha district gracefully serving tea and Japanese sweets</p>

<p>Geiko taking a short break before replacing their partners</p>

<p>A geiko, about to prepare tea, focuses on her gestures</p>

<p>The plum blossom festival is also a festival of colours</p>

<p>Plum blossoms underline the beauty of maiko's make-up, or is it the opposite?</p>

<p>Kitano Tenman-gu is within a stone's throw of Nishijin, Kyoto's most famous kimono weaving district</p>

<p>There is more than a thousand and five hundred plum trees of fifty different species within the shrine precincts</p>

<p>The plum blossoms are usually in full bloom around late February or early March at Kitano Tenman-gu</p>

Located northwest of Kyoto near the famous Golden Pavilion, Kitano Tenman-gu is a Shinto shrine where Sugawara no Michizane, an aristocrat from the ninth century, is worshipped as the deity of education. A tea ceremony is held within the shrine precincts every year on February 25 during the Plum Blossom Festival. Surrounded by hundreds of plum trees in full bloom, around thirty geiko (a local term in Kyoto for geisha) and maiko from the neighbouring geisha district (Kamishichi-ken) will serve matcha tea to visitors, accompanied by delicious Japanese sweets.

Gates open at 10:00 am and close at 3:00 pm. It costs ¥1,500 to enter and the ticket includes tea, sweets, a special gift and a ticket for the museum of the shrine. Tickets are limited to 3000 attendees, so be sure to arrive early enough as you will mostly likely have to queue before sitting.

More info

Find out more about Kitano Tenmangu.

Julian Bohler @julian.bohler

Born in France, I was twenty years old when, passing by a local bookstore, a book about Japanese characters caught my attention. This was my first encounter with Japan, and one that would change my life in many ways. Earning a degree in Japanese Studies with a major in Japanese religions and f...