Malleus special: Gion Matsuri 2001 – Binaural Soundscapes of Festive Kyoto (in honor of Gion Matsuri 2008)

Come celebrate the Kyoto festival of Gion Matsuri with this collection of binaural soundscapes. Music, pictures, pachinko, giant wagons covered with ancient tapestries, and lots of Japanese people saying “Oooooh!” at just the right moments. What more could you want? Get a pair of headphones and enjoy this album, recorded by myself and free to all.

Happy Gion Matsuri!

During the summer of 2001 my wife Pam and I went to Bali, Thailand, and Japan on what was a truly magical honeymoon. (All the good pictures below, by the way, are hers. The bad ones are mine.) Eager to participate in Japan?s colorful festivals, we planned our trip around one of the most famous: Gion Matsuri, which is celebrated every July in Kyoto. Although the festival runs all month, it peaks on the 17th, when giant floats called mikoshi, yama, and hoko are pulled through the streets of the city.

This ritual parade dates back to 869, when Japan was ravaged by a terrible plague. Seeking deliverance for his people, Emperor Seiwa sent a messenger to the Yasaka Jinja shrine of Kyoto, requesting the high priest?s assistance in banishing the plague. It was decided that sacred floats dedicated to the Kami would be drawn through the streets of Kyoto to banish the illness, and following this undertaking the sickness did indeed subside. In 970 Gion Matsuri became an annual affair, stopping only briefly during the fifteenth century and during the post WWII American occupation. Gion Matsuri is considered the largest and most popular religious (Shinto) observance in Japan.

I got interested in binaural recordings from the work of Thomas Manuel Lopez (such as his excellent production of “Sticks”, which I reviewed last week) and through the fascinating work of sound artist Aaron Ximm. Ximm has traveled extensively through Asia and has made many great soundscape recordings, ranging from immersive slice-of-life takes to re-mixed aural artworks. (In the latter category I’m particularly fond of Ximm’s Lethe, which uses Southeast Asian ambiance to create a walk through the underworld.) I highly recommend looking into more of Ximm’s work at his website, the aptly named Quiet American.

The tracks below are digital recordings of aural environments in and around the festival that I made using professional quality DSM-1/L lo-noise binaural microphones. The sound quality is excellent and immersive – the head-mounted mics are designed to pick up sound like the human ear and replicate a sense of 3-dimensional acoustic placement. Beyond hearing stereo effects of left and right, the listener is placed in the midst of a sonic environment. I highly recommend the use of headphones when listening to these recordings in order to heighten their 3-dimensional qualities and to achieve the clearest possible sound reproduction. Playing these tracks over loudspeakers will produce quaintly listenable but washed-out sound.

If you love sound, this piece of audio tourism can be enjoyed all by itself. Although I am retaining copyright to this material, anyone (professional or amateur) interested in using these soundscapes in an audio drama is welcome to do so at no cost. I require only notification and a credit.

Enjoy the trip!

Yama float passes by, Gion Matsuri parade (1:28)
[audio:https://radiodramarevival.comgion-matsuri/01-yama-float-passes.mp3]
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A small float bearing a tableau of Noh-style figures passes by to the accompaniment of airy flutes and resonant chimes. As the float recedes into the distance its music is absorbed into the murmur of the watching throng.

Turning a Hoko, Gion Matsuri parade (6:55)
[audio:https://radiodramarevival.comgion-matsuri/06-turning-a-hoko.mp3]
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The parade of floats is the height of the Gion Matsuri festival, and the height of the parade floats, quite literally, are the towering hoko. Hokos are two-storied mobile towers shaped like Shinto shrines and surmounted by scaffolding from which a conical mountain of cloth is draped. The first story features mammoth wooden wheels, the second is draped with rich tapestries and has a platform that seats the hoko’s musicians. The hoko is topped by a sacred tree, symbolic as the place where the spirit of the Kami dwells.

As the Hoko weighs anything from four to thirteen metric tons and can have a height of seventy-eight feet, it is placed on four massive wheels and is pulled by fifty men who walk in rhythm to the accompaniment of the flautists and drummers riding inside. According to tradition the Hoko carry the souls of the ancestors who have died since the previous festival and the music has the magic effect of collecting the souls into the tree so that they can be taken to the Gion shrine to spend one week in the company of the Kami. The giant wooden wheels of the hoko emit tremendous creaking noises as they are turned – the aural effect is like hearing a tree split apart by lightning, and is well worth listening for. Hokos have no steering mechanism, which means that periodically large wooden wedges must be shoved under the front wheels of the Hoko, righting its course with a loud whump!

An impressive array of 40-50 men, divided between two leading ropes, coordinate their efforts through chants and the music of the flautists and drummers to rotate the Hokos 90 degrees at strategic intersections. It?s no mean feet to accomplish this with seventy-eight foot tall constructions lacking any steering mechanisms. A terrific sense of drama is generated by a panoply of sounds: the cracking of the giant wooden wheels as they turn on slats of wetted bamboo, music whose tempo and mood reflect the progress of the hoko bearers, and an audience of thousands whose attentive silence is penetrated by well-timed ?ooohs?, applause, and occasionally laughter at failed attempts.

This recording was made from the midst of a thick crowd of Japanese onlookers who murmur continually but only betray their true numbers when, following a dramatic cracking creak, they raise their voices in the first appreciative Ooooh! The music becomes upbeat and jaunty after the bearers succeed in their initial efforts. A persistent and vocal female hawker can be heard above the uproar, as well as an ambulance siren and the comments of the crowd. As the hoko finally rolls by its progress from right to left comes across stereophonically.

Creaking Hoko passes by, Gion Matsuri parade (3:10)
[audio:https://radiodramarevival.comgion-matsuri/08-creaking-hoko.mp3]
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A large hoko approaches and passes by. This recording was not made at a corner, so no turning here. The sound of the music rises and diminishes gradually and to good dramatic effect as the hoko nears, and the groaning, creaking noises of the wooden structure hint at its incredible size.

Shaking the palanquins at the Yasaka-Jinja shrine, Gion Matsuri (3:15)
[audio:https://radiodramarevival.comgion-matsuri/05-shaking-the-palanquins.mp3]
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Competitive teams of Japanese men in traditional attire swept in front of the Yasaka-Jinja shrine bearing three enormous palanquins, upon which sat the three mikoshi (portable shrines) of the Gion Matsuri festival.

These golden mikoshi, which carry the chief Kami of the Gion Shrine through the streets of Kyoto to the temporary festival abode of the gods, were each covered in numerous chimes and clappers. As the teams swept their burdens to and fro, urged on by the calls of leaders with megaphones, they shook the mikoshi rhythmically to create dense syncopated rhythms with the rattling chimes. The acoustic energy they generated was tremendous.

Yoi-Yama night market, Gion Matsuri (20:08)
[audio:https://radiodramarevival.comgion-matsuri/02-yoi-yama-night-market.mp3]
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In this ?interactive? recording, I plunged ears first into the bustling festivities of Yoi-Yama, which takes place on the evening immediately preceding the hoko parade. During this lantern-lit night market the well-to-do of Kyoto opened their windows to proudly display hereditary treasures to passers-by: full suits of samurai armor, tapestries, and even a staged glimpse of a high-class dinner party being entertained by a geisha. (Whatever joke or tale she was telling, the dinner guests were hanging on her every word.) Meanwhile on the main thoroughfares hawkers shout, electronic games buzz, local men?s associations chant and sing from stationary hoko floats, and the night is alive with the hubbub of Japanese voices. The Japanese are literally wearing their historical past, conspicuously dresed in light summer yukatas, more elaborate kimonos, and even a few pieces of samurai attire.

Unlike the other tracks on this disc, this one was not recorded from a single stationary position. I moved through the throngs, and this movement is reflected in the sound placement effects of the recording, communicating a definite sense of progression through three-dimensional space.

The journey starts at the base of a hoko, from which musicians shout. 8:55 minutes into the recording I happen upon three pachinko machines lined up alongside an alley, and I pause to record children playing them. Then my wife Pam takes a crack at it, giving up after two bouts. Pachinko is a confusing game.

Moving away from the clatter of metal balls back into the crowd, I am again engulfed by its chatter until diverted by a small craft store, whose manager ushers me in with ?Dozo!? Inside are stalls attended by smiling saleswomen who sing out salutations in Japanese. After a few minutes I leave this quiet interlude, exiting back into the night just as a nearby hoko erupts into song.

Kyoto life around the festival:

Pachinko parlor (6:18)
[audio:https://radiodramarevival.comgion-matsuri/03-pachinko-parlor.mp3]
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Nothing can prepare you for the beguiling aural chaos that is pachinko. The deafening blend of rattling metal balls, electronic blips and jingles, bass-heavy background music, and the greetings of the hostess projected over loudspeakers quickly becomes hypnotic – certainly the players seem to assume a meditative trance.

This track begins with the hostess? greeting to me as I enter the parlor and concludes as I exit back into the busy Kyoto night. During this recording I walked down the aisles between rows of machines, stopping every now and then to record a customer cashing in his winnings with a metallic clatter. Wearing headphones and played at the proper volume (don’t hurt your ears, but pachinko is loud!), the sound is intoxicating and overwhelming.

Okonomiyaki restaurant (10:50)
[audio:https://radiodramarevival.comgion-matsuri/04-okonomiyaki-restaurant.mp3]
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Sushi may be the food Westerners first think of when it comes to Japan, but the hot teppan (iron grill) of an Okonomiyaki restaurant in Japan is a true feast for the ears. Okonomiyaki means ?cook what you like?, and essentially one can have whatever meat, seafood, or vegetables one wants cooked into a cabbage and vegetable batter. At some Okonomiyaki restaurants customers cook for themselves with a small personal grill, while at others professional cooks do the preparations and leave only the seasoning to the patrons. In this case the cooks did the job, but fortunately for me the kitchen was open and I was able to sit right in front of them. Their macho culinary technique comes across in the authoritative way they slap food onto the sizzling grill, chop and sort with cutlery, and sing out call-and-response choruses of ?irasshaimase!? (welcome!) and ?ohayo gozaimasu!? (thank you!).

Bonus Track:

Baseball game at the Tokyo Dome, Tokyo
The Yakult Swallows almost score a run on the Yomiuri Giants
[audio:https://radiodramarevival.comgion-matsuri/09-baseball-game-tokyo-dome.mp3]
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It’s got nothing to do with Gion Matsuri or Kyoto, but I couldn’t resist throwing this track in. The Yomiuri Giants fans, amongst whom I was sitting, use their music bands, chants, and plastic clappers to good effect here to ridicule the opposing team?s failed effort. This short sequence will give you an evocative hint of the differences between Japanese and American-style baseboru.