F E S T I V A L ／ FEST-078

Chōshōji Donki (Fire-Prevention Demon Festival, Chōshōji Temple)

長松寺どんきちょうしょうじどんき

At Chōshōji temple in the coastal district of Mito Town in Toyokawa City, eastern Aichi Prefecture, a fire-prevention prayer ceremony is conducted each December whose concluding ritual has earned it local recognition as one of the winter eccentric festivals of the Higashi-Mikawa region. Following a prayer service (hōyō) for protection from fire and freedom from illness, three demon figures emerge and race through the temple precincts: a white fox (kitsune, associated with Inari devotionalism), a red tengu (mountain ascetic deity), and a blue tengu. These three pursue the assembled children and worshippers and smear their bodies with beni-gara — bengala, a red iron-oxide pigment that has been used across East Asia since antiquity as a protective, apotropaic colorant, the same red that stains Shintō torii gates and shrine woodwork. According to local tradition, a person whose body has been smeared with beni-gara by the demon figures will be protected from illness and misfortune for the year. The pigment remains on skin and clothing for some time after the ceremony, making the ritual's mark literal and enduring. The Chōshōji Donki belongs to the lineage of Higashi-Mikawa's demon and fire festival tradition, which includes the Ryūzanji Oni Festival in Okazaki and the Toba Fire Festival in Nishio — though it is significantly smaller in scale and retains an intimacy and local specificity that larger ceremonies do not.