A personal blog by an American student in Japan.
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Thursday, July 17, 2008
祇園祭 (Gion Matsuri)
Aaron Dean and I are going to head over early and see if we can't get a good spot to get pictures of the opening ceremonies for Gion festival. Here's hoping!
祇園祭 is a festival that takes place in downtown Kyoto, not Gion, strangely enough. It dates back a few hundred years (1000-ish) and was originally performed (what verb do you use with festival as the object?) to ward off sickness and generally protect the residents of Kyoto. I took a decent number of pictures, but more importantly, I got some good movie-ness. Aaron used my tripod to stabilize his camera, but ran out of power for the turnings. fortunately, he also had his digicam with him and I had a spare SD card, so I recorded a full turning by setting his camera on my tripod and ignoring it while I took pictures. I'll work on getting stuff up after I've had a chance to sort through it and he's had a chance to edit the film down.
I asked my boss and he said there's matsuru, but I looked it up: 祭る まつる (1) to deify; to enshrine (2) to pray; to worship Ex: この記念碑は祖国に命を捧げた兵士を祭っている。 This monument is dedicated to the soldiers who gave their lives to their country. He said that if you had to use a verb, it would be suru.
6 Comments:
I hope you get lots of nice pictures --- we be liking the pictures.
What is Gion Matsuri? I know the Japanese have festivals about everything...
The weather is great! Take lots of pictures!!
祇園祭 is a festival that takes place in downtown Kyoto, not Gion, strangely enough. It dates back a few hundred years (1000-ish) and was originally performed (what verb do you use with festival as the object?) to ward off sickness and generally protect the residents of Kyoto.
I took a decent number of pictures, but more importantly, I got some good movie-ness. Aaron used my tripod to stabilize his camera, but ran out of power for the turnings. fortunately, he also had his digicam with him and I had a spare SD card, so I recorded a full turning by setting his camera on my tripod and ignoring it while I took pictures.
I'll work on getting stuff up after I've had a chance to sort through it and he's had a chance to edit the film down.
A protective festival? Interesting.
I'm not sure what verbs you would use with festival either. Celebrate, present, put on, hold, observe...
Do the Japanese have a specific term for it that you know?
I asked my boss and he said there's matsuru, but I looked it up:
祭る まつる
(1) to deify; to enshrine
(2) to pray; to worship
Ex: この記念碑は祖国に命を捧げた兵士を祭っている。
This monument is dedicated to the soldiers who gave their lives to their country.
He said that if you had to use a verb, it would be suru.
Suru makes sense. Thank you! Matsuru is interesting, also.
I like how Japanese can add suru to so many things.
:)
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