Yasaka-jinja

At the top of the Gion district the street doesn't end at a wall: it runs uphill into a two-storey vermilion gate and becomes a shrine. Legend places a bottomless pond beneath Yasaka's main hall, home to Seiryū, the Blue Dragon long said to guard the city's eastern quarter. This is where the Gion Matsuri, the Gion Festival, began in 869 and has been held every summer since. Stand before the hall, clap twice, and listen.