Dec 20, 2013 - 1 min read

Spring at Kitano Tenman-gu, Kyoto

Baikasai: Plum Blossom Festival

By Julian Bohler

Community writer

Plum blossoms have been celebrated in Japanese poetry since the 8th century

It is not unusual to see people wearing kimono at traditional festivals in Kyoto

A special guest hides among the crowd of visitors

An extra fee will allow you to sit on a wooden mat, closer from where the matcha tea is being prepared

Geiko and maiko from the neighbouring geisha district gracefully serving tea and Japanese sweets

Geiko taking a short break before replacing their partners

A geiko, about to prepare tea, focuses on her gestures

The plum blossom festival is also a festival of colours

Plum blossoms underline the beauty of maiko's make-up, or is it the opposite?

Kitano Tenman-gu is within a stone's throw of Nishijin, Kyoto's most famous kimono weaving district

There is more than a thousand and five hundred plum trees of fifty different species within the shrine precincts

The plum blossoms are usually in full bloom around late February or early March at Kitano Tenman-gu

Located northwest of Kyoto near the famous Golden Pavilion, Kitano Tenman-gu is a Shinto shrine where Sugawara no Michizane, an aristocrat from the ninth century, is worshipped as the deity of education. A tea ceremony is held within the shrine precincts every year on February 25 during the Plum Blossom Festival. Surrounded by hundreds of plum trees in full bloom, around thirty geiko (a local term in Kyoto for geisha) and maiko from the neighbouring geisha district (Kamishichi-ken) will serve matcha tea to visitors, accompanied by delicious Japanese sweets.

Gates open at 10:00 am and close at 3:00 pm. It costs ¥1,500 to enter and the ticket includes tea, sweets, a special gift and a ticket for the museum of the shrine. Tickets are limited to 3000 attendees, so be sure to arrive early enough as you will mostly likely have to queue before sitting.

More info

Find out more about Kitano Tenmangu.

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By Julian Bohler

Community writer

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Julian Bohler Photographer 10 years ago

Thank you Nicole! I am not in Kyoto right now so unfortunately I cannot tell you for sure, but I bet they should. Plum trees are usually in bloom around late February or early March, depending on how warm the weather is. This year the plum parc is opened from February 8 to late March (according to the temple's website). The flowers usually last a couple of weeks at least, sometimes a couple weeks more.