Mitarashi Festival

　The Mitarashi Festival at Shimogamo Shrine is one of Kyoto’s summer traditions. Visitors dip their feet in the Mitarashi Pond within the shrine grounds to pray for good health and freedom from illness. Seoritsu-hime-no-Mikoto, enshrined at Inoue-sha—a shrine built atop the well shaft that feeds the Mitarashi Pond—is the goddess of water who purifies people of their sins and impurities; it is said that this custom spread amongst the common people from the Muromachi period onwards. Visitors enter the pond barefoot, holding a candle, and light it at the candle stand at Inoue-sha.

　The festival began last Saturday and continues until the 30th of this month, but as it coincides with a bank holiday weekend, the crowds are immense. In the sweltering heat, the queues are so long that it’s impossible to know how long one will have to wait. I would recommend visiting early in the morning on a weekday, as it tends to be relatively quiet then.