“Kyokusui-no-Utage(曲水の宴)” was held at Yotsugi Shrine in Tatsuda, Kita-ku, Kumamoto City today. It is held every year May 4th and it depicts a Heian-period(8th to 12th century) court event. Poets dressed in colorful juni-hitoe (twelve-layered robe) and other costumes performed waka poems, and those who gathered enjoyed the elegant atmosphere listening live Koto(Japanese harp) performance.

The Kyokusui-no-Utage is an event in which a cup is floated in a stream that meanders through the garden, and poems are composed before the cup passes by. Yotsugi Shrine, which is dedicated to the Heian-period poet Ki no Tsurayuki, has been holding this event since 2010, the 1050th anniversary of the shrine’s founding.

Yotsugi Shrine