Summer in Japan brings lively festivals, tempting street stalls, kimono-clad strollers and lights in the trees. It brings fireworks and sparklers, stripey tents and trickles of laughter. It keeps children out late, fishing for plastic toys in puffy round paddling pools, and proudly bouncing home with bags of goldfish in their pudgy little hands.
August in Kyoto brings the Tanabata festival, where bamboo pipes made to look like trees line the riverside, strung with fairy lights, and dripping with silver ribbons and wishes from festival goers written on Japanese paper and tied to the branches.
Tonight, just South of the large bridge at Sanjo, the Tanabata celebrations were combined with Yuzen Nagashi, an old ritual of washing kimono silk in the rushing waters of the river, lit only by red lamplight. Originally this was to remove the paste resist and any excess dye from the fabric.
The colours of the delicate silk float through the air and bounce off the ripples made by the dunking of the fabric strips, and it looks like a string of wild bunting has been dropped from bank to bank.
This is Summer in Kyoto.
