On May 14th is the annual festival of a little shrine located in the middle of Gion Higashi — Kankame Jinja (with its nickname being “Kanki”). So the day before, there is some kind of a big public party around the shrine, like some street beer garden party, with Maiko and Geiko, and a lot of other people.
It’s a good opportunity to meet friends for a beer, and to catch a few photos of Maiko. Unfortunately, the challenge here is to avoid having too many other photographers within the frame. Not an easy task 😉
After a little while (long enough for a couple of beers), all the Okaasan, Geiko and Maiko, as well as a number of musicians and other members of various groups went together into a little procession and started parading around the neighborhood. Photographers tried to run ahead of the procession in order to get in position for a shot, and so on. It was good fun and at the same time challenging to try to get just this one more shot…
I arrived just after six and left the place after 8:30 pm, but the party continued much longer…
Kanki Jinja, Gion Hogashi
This is just behind the Shijo Street. In front of the Kanki Shrine
