F E S T I V A L ／ FEST-013

Saga Otaimatsu (Seiryōji Temple Torch Ceremony)

嵯峨お松明式（清凉寺）さがおたいまつしき

On the evening of March 15th — the same date as Tōdaiji's Shuni-e climax and Tagata/Ōagata's fertility festivals — Seiryōji Temple in Saga Arashiyama lights three massive pine torches seven meters tall in a ceremony that combines agricultural divination with Buddhist memorial. The three torches represent the three stages of the rice crop (early, middle, late), and their combustion pattern is read by the assembled priests: a fast burn on the left indicates a rich early harvest; a lingering flame on the right suggests the late crop will struggle. The ceremony enacts the Buddha's cremation — March 15th is the traditional date of Śākyamuni's death and cremation in the lunar calendar — and the agricultural divination is layered on top of that Buddhist memorial in a combination that is characteristic of the Japanese religious synthesis. The fire is large, the setting is Arashiyama's distinctive wooded valley, and the ceremony takes approximately an hour from lighting to completion.