A fiery festival

Takisanji Oni Matsuri in Okazaki

All over Japan they are celebrating the traditional beginning of spring by driving out demons and welcoming good fortune into their homes. People dressed as demons (oni) are symbolically driven out by throwing beans (or, as in the case of my school, packets of peanuts and roasted beans, which we gathered back up and ate after our demon, the head of the faculty, was driven out!) However, at Takisanji Temple Oni Festival fire is used to drive out the demons! Last night several friends and I went to see this famous local festival. The pictures I took are nearly useless, as I don't have the right camera for fast moving action and flaming bundles of wood and that is just what we saw. Having said that, I still posted a few of my pictures which you can see by clicking the link above.

To get to Takisanji temple I rode my bike to the central Okazaki train station, about 30 minutes, where I met my friends and caught a bus to the temple. After a 25-minute ride we arrived at the foot of a steep, wide stone stairway that let to the temple. A few of the usual festival food stands were just starting to offer interesting looking snacks at the several landings on the way up, but not knowing when the ceremony would begin, we hurried up the stairs. At the top we came immediately into the crowd that was beginning to gather around the front of the temple where a sort of stage was erected. On either side of this central space two huge bundles of bamboo and wood had been erected and were soon being ceremoniously lit by men in various, colorful costumes. Once these two fagots were lit, they threw off a lot of light and heat, and had to be attended to by several men with brooms constantly dipped in water and applied here and there to control the burning.

After that, several ritualized performances were done on the stage, accompanied by singing and drumming. For a long time nothing very exciting seemed to be happening, as the crowd slowly grew larger and larger. I took this opportunity to walk around the temple grounds and from one side I could see lots of coming and going as participants were putting on costumes and getting ready for something. There were groups of young people running around, fathers holding little children on the shoulders to see over the crowd, children climbing on the stone lanterns to get a better view, and lovers enjoying the darkness.

My friends and I had to catch one of only three buses that would be taking folks back at round 8 p.m., so we were getting a little apprehensive as the hour approached and still there was no sign of the finale, when suddenly from the back side of the temple, a large line of men dressed in white came running a long the porch carrying long burning torches which they bounced along the balustrade. Children wearing demon masks were carried and "chased" around the temple as the flames shot to roof edge and sparks showered the crowd. It was an amazing five or so minutes of drama as one wondered if, despite the numerous firemen on hand, the temple would not go up in flames at any moment or that one of the "demons" would not be dropped as they were lifted high to show the crowd!

Then, just as suddenly as it had begun, it was over. The burning torches were tossed off the porch into piles on the ground and the crowd immediately began to move to the stairways and down to the buses, cars or food stalls. We too headed down, but HAD to stop for a crepe with banana and whipped cream on the way. We just made it onto the last bus!

I am including a link here for a web site I found that describes this festival nicely and also has a few much better pictures. I hope you can feel the heat!

http://nippon-kichi.jp/article_list.do;jsessionid=D967EF22452A9F00F6C8DCAF8D4092A2?p=4660&ml_lang=en