- Celebrate the Coming of Spring with Plum Blossoms -

DATE:   Opening of Plum Orchard: Beginning of February
– End of March, 2007 (tentative)
Baika Festival: February 25
Festival: From 10:00 to 10:50 at the Honden Hall
Tea Ceremony: From 10:00 to 15:00 at the Sankou Gate West Square
PLACE:  

Kitano Temman-gu Shrine, Bakuro-cho, Kamigyo-ku, Kyoto
DIRECTION:   City Bus #50 or #101 to Kitano Temmangu-mae
TEL:   81-75-461-0005
ADMISSION:   Plum Orchard: Adults – 500 yen
(junior high school students and above) Children – 250 yen
* Prices include servings of plum tea and sweets
* Groups of 30 or more – 10% discount
(except on the 25th, Sundays and holidays)
Tea Ceremony: 1,500 yen
(including three tickets: tea, admission to the Houmotsu-den Hall
and a small share of the removed of offerings.)
* Tickets go on sale January 25th
* 3,000 tickets only, first-come-first-served basis
Brown rice to ward off bad luck: 100 yen per bag
TEXT:   Kitano Tenmangu Shrine was founded in 947
when Sugawara Michizane was enshrined
as the tutelary deity of the Imperial Palace.
The Heian period scholar, poet
and political figure Michizane is very popular
as a patron deity of scholarship.  
The Baika Festival (Plum Blossom Festival)
has been held on the day of Michizane’s death
for the past 900 years.
  He is said to have been very fond of plum blossom,
as shown in the following poem he composed:
“Kochi fukaba nioi okoseyo ume no hana
aruji nashi tote haru o wasuruna”
(When the east wind blows, send your fragrance to me,
plum blossoms, even though your master is no longer there,
never forget spring). 
Based on such ancient records, an offering known as
Baika-no-Goku is made. 
The offering comprises approximately 72 liters of steamed rice
on one large and one small stand. The stands are placed
on the Honden Hall altar. On February 25, you can experience
the refinement that Michizane so cherished
at a tea ceremony performed
by geiko and maiko from Kyoto’s Kamishichiken quarter.
In the 66,000 square meters of shrine grounds,
visitors can view some 50 different kinds of
plum trees and a total of 2,000 trees
(1,000 within the gate and 1,000 in the orchard).