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Yasurai Festival is known as one of Kyoto strange festivals, including
Kurama Fire Festival and Uzumasa Cow Festival. Yasurai Festival is held
to ward off disease. It is believed that someone who participates in the
parade and gets under a flower umbrella will stay healthy. The parade
is followed by dancing Oni monsters with red and black hair and chanting
“Yasurai Hana-ya” with accompanied by Japanese flutes and drums. Aburi
mochi (roasted rice cakes), a specialty of Imamiya-jinja Shrine, is likened
to mochi that is dedicated to the gods when Yasurai Festival first began.
There are two aburi mochi shops outside the shrine’s east gate. Why don’t
you try to compare their tastes. |