Gion Matsuri: Prosesi Budaya, Partisipasi Komunitas Dan Pelestarian Wajah Kota Kyoto

. Gion Matsuri is an annually festival in Kyoto, organized in every July and renowned as one of the three biggest festivals in Japan. The processions take place through the whole month where local community take part as main organizer. This article aims to describe what is Gion Matsuri, how local community involved in organizing the festival, and the relation with the effort of townscape conservation as part of the whole urban landscape. The festival takes place in the historic city centre as its main stage, therefore traditional wooden architecture is important as the Kyoto's character. A number of efforts on townscape conservation have been carried out, but unfortunately uncontrollable development have caused the big changes on Kyoto townscape. The population of machiya townhouses, the Kyoto's unique traditional wooden architecture, has decreased. The new built buildings that replaced those traditional ones potentially destroy the character of Kyoto towscape. Government had took some efforts to protect the townscape, but the issued regulations does not yet touch the whole character of Kyoto townscape. Whereas, social economy and culture that are continuesly changing is a big challenge for conservation. Therefore, sinergic effort among the government, private sector and local community is needed to condition the development pace to be harmonious with the character of Kyoto City