On Sunday, the city where I live (Yokaichi) had a fire festival at the local Shinto shrine. I can see this shrine every morning on my way to the train station because its built on Taroubogu mountain (I climbed it in one of my earlier posts). I always think of some esoteric Buddhist sect, meditating on the mountaintop even though this is not even close to what the shrine is like.
Anyway, on this day a large pyre was erected in the parking lot. Covered with evergreen branches, this pyre is for the incineration (and therefore offering) of wishes written on wooden slats. Throughout the year, visitors to the shrine can pay a small offering and receive a wooden slat to write wishes on, and then once a year (during this festival) the priests of the temple throw the wishes into the pyre. This is meant to symbolize the offering up of the wishes to the god, who will then act on behalf of your wish.
The festival was attended by many locals, but also a few tourists who came to see the festivities. The whole ceremony lasted about 3 hours, and was full of archaic Japanese and Shinto imagery. Here you can see them chanting before the start of the ceremony:
I had almost no idea what the imagery was supposed to represent, but here's a cool video of some guys with axes:
After about 2 hours, the priests finally lit the pyre, and started tossing the wishes into the flames. Immediatly after the fire was started the smoke became intense:
The smoke lasted for about 20 minutes, and afterwards the priests started tossing bundles of wishes into the flames. After every wish was burnt, the priests took some hot coals from the ashes and laid out a path of flames for the brave to walk across. Old women, children, and everyday adults lined up to walk across hot coals. "If these frail people could walk across fire, why can't I" were my thoughts at the time, so I hopped in line and waited my turn.
You had to remove your socks and shoes, and then scurry across the logs laid out on the coals. Honestly, the worst part was the thick smoke coming from the very green logs that were set on the coals. The smoke got in my eyes, and I teared up a bit, but my feet didn't even get singed. After you rubbed the stinging sensation out of your eyes, some priests gave you a stick to remember your "walk of fire" by, and you were on your merry way.
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