F E S T I V A L ／ FEST-167
Komukai Jinja Hachionji-sai — Fire Festival (Hi-Matsuri)
小向神社 八王子祭（火祭り）おぶけじんじゃ はちおうじまつり（ひまつり）
Each year on the night of August 13th, Komukai Jinja in Asahi Town, Mie District, stages a fire festival with a history of approximately three hundred years tracing to the Kyōhō era (1716–1736). Two groups of male parishioners — youth and adults — strip to the waist and beat one another with burning bundles of straw, scattering sparks while praying for the expulsion of pestilence. The ritual culminates in the ignition of a large central torch five to six meters in height, producing a substantial pillar of fire. The festival functions simultaneously as a mushiokuri (insect-driving) rite and as a ceremony for warding off epidemic disease. It is designated an Intangible Cultural Property of Asahi Town.
H I G H L I G H T S
Highlights
- 01Two groups of bare-chested male parishioners beat one another with burning straw torches, scattering sparks in a physically intense exorcism ritual
- 02Culminating ignition of a central torch five to six meters tall producing a sustained pillar of fire
- 03Annually on August 13th; approximately three centuries of continuous practice; designated Intangible Cultural Property of Asahi Town