F E S T I V A L ／ FEST-109
Aso Shrine Hifuri Shinji
阿蘇神社 火振り神事あそじんじゃ ひふりしんじ
On a designated evening in late March, the great shrine of Aso — one of the oldest in Kyushu, situated on the inner floor of the world's largest caldera — performs one of Japan's most striking fire rites. After nightfall, parishioners and pilgrims gather along the approach to the shrine bearing kayataba, bundles of dried miscanthus reeds bound at one end of a long pendant cord. The bundles are kindled, and the participants whirl them overhead in steady arcs, forming concentric rings of flame that line the dark approach. The rite enacts a passage from the founding mythology of Aso, in which the deity Takeiwatatsu-no-Mikoto receives his consort Asotsuhime through the light of torches that guide her along the path. As the springtime opening of the agricultural cycle on the Aso plateau, the festival is also one of the constituent rites of 'The Agricultural Festivals of Aso,' designated by the Japanese government as an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property in 1982.
H I G H L I G H T S
Highlights
- 01Whirling reed bundles: long cords of burning kayataba turn overhead in slow arcs along the temple approach, producing successive rings of flame in the dark
- 02Reenactment of the bridal procession: the rite stages the mythological reception of the consort goddess Asotsuhime by the deity of Mt. Aso
- 03Highland evening: held in the cold mountain air of the Aso caldera in late March, the festival is set against an unusually clear sky and the surrounding silhouette of the volcano