Preserving a 1,500-year-old hollyhock festival in Japan |Takeda Stories

"With our extensive experience in cultivating plants, I wanted to start growing hollyhocks in our garden to preserve the tradition of the Hollyhock Festival and contribute to society."
Misyo Ota oversees the seed preservation project at the Takeda Garden for Medicinal Plant Conservation, Kyoto. Established in 1933, the Garden collects and preserves a variety of plants that have value to society.
"By growing the endangered hollyhocks, we are contributing to passing down the tradition of the Hollyhock Festival, which has continued since the Heian period, which spanned the years 794 to 1185," Misyo says.
The Hollyhock Festival dates back over 1,500 years and is one of Kyoto's three major festivals. It is renowned for its procession of participants dressed in Heian-period costumes adorned with hollyhock leaves.

Hollyhocks have traditionally thrived in the area around Kamigamo Shrine, but the plant faced the threat of extinction as it could no longer grow naturally due to climate change and animal damage. In response, local citizens initiated the "Aoi Project" (Aoi is the Japanese name for hollyhock) to cultivate the plant and enable the traditional Hollyhock Festival to continue.