Its 5:30pm in Nara, Japan on the fourth Saturday in January, your belly is full of goodies from food vendors and your fingers are a little numb from the cold. In front of you a procession of traditionally-clothed Buddhist Monks from the Kasugataisha Shrine, Toudai-ji Temple, and the Kohfuku-ji Temple pass on their way up Mt. Wakakusa, unlit torches in hand. Halfway up the mountain they set those torches alight and finish their trek, using the torches to start a large, contained, bonfire. You've spent the whole day participating in or watching small events, including a sembei tossing competition, where people throw gigantic versions of the rice crackers that visitors typically use to feed the abundance of wild deer that inhabit the park. Its all been leading up to this.
6:15pm a wild display of 'Shakudama' fireworks, the only event in Nara that uses these special 30cm around fireworks, lights up the sky in luminous and vibrant colors while on the ground the monks prepare to set the mountain ablaze. Once the monks light the dead grass, using the bonfire, the flames gradually consuming the mountain is a spectacular sight. The fire can be seen throughout the entire city, with great viewing points from the base of the mountain (if you want to keep toasty too), Ukigumo Park, and Heijo Palace to get a panoramic view of the city silhouetted on a backdrop of fire. From here you can see the whole mountain, truly appreciating the grand scale of this event.
There are a few different ideas of the origins of this event, one of which involves two feuding temples, the Toudaiji-ji and Kohfuku-ji, over boundary issues. As mediations failed and tempers flared, things got out of hand and Mt. Wakakusa caught fire, though whether it was on purpose or an accident is still up for debate it seems. Another theory is that it was meant to scare away ghosts. This comes from the belief that setting the mountain on fire would appease the spirits from the Uguisuzuka Kofun tomb, located on the top of the third hill of Mt. Wakakusa, and repel those that would return. It was also believed that if you did not conduct this act by the end of January in the new year period, you would suffer from terrible misfortune. Due to people trying to uphold this tradition, fires would break out uncontrolled in the area. So the festival was set up to reign that in and to still celebrate. Because of this, some regard the festival as a type of memorial service. The last, and very straight-forward explanation, is that the fires were used to drive pesky wild boars out of the
area.
Whatever the reason for its existence, the Wakakusa Yamayaki festival is one that certainly shouldn't be missed! My drive to visit Japan for the snow festival in Sapporo every February is already at a high, may have to go a bit early so I can check this out as well one day.
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