Yamabushi-Yama: Gion Matsuri!, a set on Flickr.
This float is called Yamabushi-yama because it displays a holy doll of a Yamabushi (a mountain priest) on its top. When the famous five-storied Yasaka pagoda of the Hokan-ji temple near Kiyomizu temple began to lean many centuries ago a renowned Yamabushi named Yozokisho reportedly set the tower straight with his spiritual powers. The image on this float depicts the renowned priest ready to undergo strict aesthetic training in order to gain his mystical powers, with a Buddhist rosary in his left hand and a hatchet in his right. On his waist is a large trumpet shell typical of a Yamabushi.
Several days before the parade there is an annual visit to the Yamabushi-yama by Buddhist Mountain priests who come to pay homage to the float. Yasaka shrine also dispatches Shinto priests to offer prayers here, and Ho-in, the highest-ranked priest from Choho-ji Rokka Kudo temple (the birthplace of flower arrangements) visits to deliver a Buddhist prayer. The Sampo (three treasures this float offers to Shinto deities) are black-lacquered in the Buddhist style which show the harmonious mixture of Shintoism and Buddhism before their mixture was forbidden by law in 1868, the year of the Meiji restoration.
