Uzumasa Ox Festival - 太秦牛祭

This oban woodblock print depicts the Uzumasa Ox Festival (Ushi Matsuri), a distinctive folk ritual held at Koryu-ji Temple in the Uzumasa district of western Kyoto. The festival, associated with prayers for agricultural prosperity, features a masked figure riding an ox through the temple grounds in a nocturnal procession. The combination of the large animal, masked performers, and torch-lit darkness creates a visually dramatic subject for the woodblock medium. Kamei's rendering captures a ritual that connects urban Kyoto to its agrarian roots, when the relationship between humans and working animals was central to survival. The ox, decorated for the festival occasion, becomes both a living participant and a symbol of the earth's fertility. The print documents a local observance less well known than Kyoto's major festivals but deeply rooted in the community's religious calendar.