Tōrō Yama or the Mantis Float refers to a Chinese proverb. It relates that, though a mantis is not strong enough to stop an oxcart, it may be brash enough to give it a try. Beyond the proverb, Tōrō Yama is dedicated to a 14th-century Kyoto noble, Shijō Takasuke, who unsuccessfully took on an enemy much stronger than he, the future shōgun Ashikaga Yoshiakira.
[caption class="snax-figure" align="aligncenter" width="1140"]https://www.gionfestival.org/toro-yama/[/caption]
The Shijō clan lived in this area; it’s said that 25 years after his death (1376) his family contributed this float, depicting a mantis automata atop an oxcart, to the Gion Festival procession. It was surely a bold political statement for the time – apparently hutzpah ran in the family.
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