Do these shots look somewhat psychedelic or surreal to you? Well, the sight of hundreds of men & boys in loin cloths on a chilly January night is odd enough in itself, but when they are frantically shouting & waving burning torches around then you know you've either over-indulged in some powerful substance or you're simply witnessing a Japanese matsuri (festival)! This particular one took place in Daizenji, a town 40 km south of Fukuoka which holds an annual bonfire festival that is considered one of the top three in 
Japan (as said before, 
people here love ranking things!). The theme of matsuri's seems to be either to pray for a good harvest or to dispel evil, and this oniyo has been held for 1600 years to chase away evil spirits in the new year.
Japan (as said before, 
people here love ranking things!). The theme of matsuri's seems to be either to pray for a good harvest or to dispel evil, and this oniyo has been held for 1600 years to chase away evil spirits in the new year. 
Seeing the men in traditional outfits run towards the shrine with huge flames enveloping them is certainly an impressive spectacle, but the real event doesn't start until 9pm, when six gigantic, 13-metre long torches set within the temple grounds, are lit to the sounds of the temple bell. 
The thousands of onlookers literally gasped at this point because it's a really cool (no bad pun intended) sight! Watching these giant torches burn took quite a while but all of a sudden, very unexpectedly, the groups of men grabbed hold of them with long wooden sticks & started turning them. Towards the crowd.
Ever stared into the red eye of fire before & realised it was coming your way? Everyone's first reaction is of course to run like crazy, so in 20 seconds the entire audience on our side had dispersed, in the process trying not to trample each other (which magically worked). We were quite alarmed by this, but apparently it's all part of the event. Good family fun!
3 comments:
i love the imagery on your site.
Wow, you truly see and do some amazing things Ms Inge! The photos are fantastic - I would have loved to have witnessed that too. And you are right, even in NZ those fires would have constituted a Health and Safety nightmare! (I unforuntely know just how so, being the newly appointed, unwitting, H&S Officer for my workplace. Sigh. Doesnt come with ANY kind of perks to the job either! ;))
Japanese matsuri are extrememly cool! Especially the ones in small towns.
The fire festival reminds me of one from Noto Machi but there it's not just men in the fire's way but kids are carried on the mikoshi as well.
Thankfully no H & S bull but one thing they do is to make sure that the guys doing the stuff that can be dangerous to others (i.e. hauling the carts - try the great Golden Week festival in Nanao, Ishikawa) don't drink.
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