Gion Lantern Parade #1

The lantern parade, held on July 10, was a formal ceremony used to welcome the mikoshi portable shrines that are going to be used as part of the Gion matsuri. Shinto followers believe that mikoshi serve as the vehicle of a divine spirit(s) at the time of a parade of deities. This colorful parade was held at sundown, so it was fairly dark and I was not situated very close to the precession because I came across it by chance. It arrived without much fanfare, traffic was not stopped just mildly diverted or halted as the parade made its way down one side of a major thuro-fare. It was a very nice surprise but it did not leave me with much chance to think about exposure and the colors, though vivid in person, were muddy due to the low light so I switched to B&W, this one is a little grainy from the high ISO that was used but it gives it a newspaper feel.