The Charm at Our Door
玄関の粽（ちまき）
Beside the entrance, under the noren, hangs a small bundle of straw with a red-and-white paper tag. Guests often ask whether it is food. It is not — and the reason is rather a good story.
玄関の脇、暖簾の下に、赤い紙札のついた小さな藁束が下がっています。これは祇園祭の粽（ちまき）です。
What it is
これは何か
It is a chimaki — a protective charm handed out by the floats of the Gion Festival, which takes place across the whole of July, a few minutes' walk from this door. Despite the name, which elsewhere in Japan means a rice dumpling wrapped in leaves, there is nothing edible inside. It is bound bamboo leaves and straw, and nothing more.
祇園祭の山鉾で授与される厄除けの粽です。名前は同じですが、笹の葉で包んだ和菓子の「ちまき」とは別のもので、中に食べ物は入っていません。
Kyoto households hang one above the entrance and leave it there for the year, replacing it the following July.
京都では玄関の軒下に飾り、翌年の祇園祭で新しいものに替えます。
The story behind it
由来
The legend goes that the deity Susanoo-no-Mikoto, travelling in disguise, asked for a night's lodging. A wealthy man turned him away. A poor man named Somin Shorai took him in and fed him with what little he had.
旅の途中で一夜の宿を求めた素盞鳴命（すさのおのみこと）を、貧しいながらも手厚くもてなしたのが蘇民将来（そみんしょうらい）でした。
In return, the god promised that Somin Shorai's descendants would be spared from plague, and gave him a token to mark the household.
その礼として素盞鳴命は、蘇民将来の子孫は疫病を免れると約束し、その印を授けたと伝えられます。
The paper tag on our chimaki reads 蘇民将来子孫也 — “This is the household of the descendants of Somin Shorai.” It is, in effect, a note pinned to the door for passing misfortune to read. The charm hangs where it is easy to see, because that is the point: it is meant to be noticed on the way in.
札に記された「蘇民将来子孫也」は「蘇民将来の子孫の家である」という意味です。疫病神の目にとまる場所に掲げることに意味があるため、玄関の見えやすい位置に飾ります。
The Gion Festival itself began in the year 869, as a rite to stop an epidemic. It has been repeated, with interruptions, for over a thousand years — and the charm at this door is a small piece of that same long habit of asking to be spared.
祇園祭は869年、疫病退散を祈願する御霊会として始まりました。玄関の粽は、その千年を超える営みの小さな一部です。
If you are here in July
7月にご滞在の方へ
You have arrived during one of the great festivals of Japan, and you are standing in the middle of it. Events run through the whole month, but the concentration is mid-July:
7月は祇園祭の期間です。ひと月を通じて行事がありますが、中心は中旬です。
- Yoiyama — the evenings before the processions. The floats are lit with lanterns, the streets close to traffic, and townhouses open their doors to show family heirlooms. This is when the chimaki are sold, by the floats themselves.
- 宵山：巡行前夜の数日間。駒形提灯が灯り、歩行者天国となります。粽はこの期間に各山鉾で授与されます。
- Yamahoko Junko — the procession of the great floats, some of them the height of a building, turned at the corners by teams hauling on ropes over split bamboo. Held on 17 and 24 July.
- 山鉾巡行：7月17日（前祭）と24日（後祭）。辻回しが見どころです。
Dates and details change slightly year to year — the official festival information is the place to check.
日程の詳細は公式情報をご確認ください。
A word of practical advice: it is hot, extremely crowded, and worth it. Go in the evening, drink more water than you think you need, and do not plan to be anywhere on time.
当日は非常に混雑します。水分を十分にお持ちください。
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