At Yasaka Shrine in Gion, Kyoto, the New Year's annual `` Karuta Hajime '' was held, wearing costumes from the Heian period and competing for karuta.
"Karuta Hajime" is an event held in connection with the legend that "Susanowo no Mikoto", enshrined at Yasaka Shrine in Higashiyama Ward, Kyoto City, composed the first waka poem in Japan. Due to the influence, it was held for the first time in three years.
On the Noh stage in the precincts, eight female karuta enthusiasts dressed in colorful costumes from the Heian period stood side by side and faced each other in pairs.
Then, when the reader read out the upper part of the waka poem with a unique intonation, he gracefully picked up the tag with the lower part written on it.
After this, a competitive karuta game was played by two women in hakama.
A woman in her 50s who visited from Kyoto said, "It was my first time to see it, but the costumes were beautiful and felt extraordinary, and the competitive karuta was powerful, so I'm glad I came to see it."