Goryo-e — Quelling Rites

(draft — to be rewritten from the ledger) Heian-kyo was Japan's first great crowded city, and epidemics swept it again and again. A quelling rite held at the Shinsen-en garden in 863 survives in the records, and the Gion goryo-e said to have begun in 869 grew into the Gion Matsuri. Turning fear into worship — this is the oldest Japanese form of the urban festival.