Hosho Yama relates to romantic love, an uncommon theme in traditional Japanese culture. The deity enshrined here is the 11th-century aristocratic warrior Hosho Hirai, famed for his courage. Hosho Yama is located in a two-storey traditional Kyoto townhouse, and the deified Hosho can bless visitors and passersby for romantic love from his vantage point above the float and street.

Hosho was brave enough to be in a relationship (marriage back then in Japan was not what we know it as today) with Izumi Shikibu, one of the famed Thirty-Six Immortal Poets, and a woman with a very flamboyant love life for her times. Besides various men, it’s said she loved plum blossoms, and Hosho risked his life to take some from an imperial palace to give to her; if caught, the penalty would have been death. The float depicts him with those plum blossoms in hand, portraying his combined courage and love for her.

Read More: https://www.gionfestival.org/hosho-yama/