F E S T I V A L ／ FEST-034
Kurama Fire Festival (Yuki Shrine Shinko-sai)
鞍馬の火祭（由岐神社 神幸祭）くらまのひまつり
On the night of October 22nd, the mountain village of Kurama north of Kyōto becomes the setting for one of Kyōto's Three Great Bizarre Festivals: a fire procession in which the entire community participates, carrying torches from sunset through midnight in a progression that moves from children's small fires to the great pine torches of adult men, and finally to the deity's procession through the illuminated dark. The shouted invocation "Saireya, Sairyō!" has echoed through Kurama's narrow mountain street since 940 CE — the year the ceremony was established to welcome the deity Yuki Myōjin's relocation from the Imperial Palace to this mountain village. The celebration of that arrival has been staged every year since, making it one of Kyōto's oldest annual events. The festival takes place on the same date as the Jidai Matsuri procession in central Kyōto, requiring visitors to choose; those who choose Kurama consistently report that the choice was correct.
H I G H L I G H T S
Highlights
- 01"Saireya, Sairyō!" — a war cry that has been shouted in this mountain village on October 22nd for over 1,000 years, without modification
- 02The progression from children's torches to the great pine torches of adult men to the deity's procession maps the entire community's participation across a single night
- 03Kurama's narrow mountain street lit by hundreds of torches is an image the 21st century has not been able to improve upon