Might be a long shot, but I’ll be in that area next year in February and would really like to attend the Baikasai Plum Blossom Festival. I understand that it is a big event, and would like to know how early one might need to show up in order to be able to participate in the tea ceremony. Any information around Bakasai would be appreciated as well.
3 comments
I went a few years ago. You can call the shrine ahead of time for tickets. Otherwise, they do sell them on the same day but I would show up early, just in case. Iirc the counter opened at around 8:00 am and I arrived around 7:30. I just spent the extra time walking the grounds and enjoying the plum blossoms 🙂
Hopefully the event goes ahead next February! Kamishichiken (the geisha district that holds the tea ceremony) has been having issues around retention and they’ve seen their numbers fall over the past year.
Tickets for Baiseikai tea ceremony are sold ahead of time and unless 25th actually falls on weekend, the traditional allotment (3,000) virtually never sells out before (thus said in 2022 and 2023 – it falls on weekend).
Whether any future allotments will be as big as pre-pandemic ones, that is another question that will probably be not answered before December/January at the earliest.
You can buy them as far ahead of time as January 25th and it’s first come first serve, so if you want to be absolutely sure you get in to the ceremony, you might want to contact your hotel concierge (assuming you’re staying somewhere that has one) ahead of time and see if they can make arrangements. That said, the festival is still very worth going to regardless of whether you get tickets.
Also, Godai Rikison Ninnoe at Daigo-ji on February 23rd is another fairly large festival that’s very worth going to you’re in Kyoto around that time.