F E S T I V A L ／ FEST-219

Yanagisawa no Yake Hachiman (Burning Hachiman of Yanagisawa)

柳沢の焼け八幡やなぎさわのやけはちまん

A Little New Year fire rite passed down in the Yanagisawa hamlet of Miyazaki, Kami Town, Miyagi, designated an Intangible Folk Cultural Property of Miyagi Prefecture (customs and practices). On the first afternoon, a hut called the "oyuya" is built of bamboo grass and straw before the Hachiman Shrine, and a "toro" (lantern) is made from twelve bundles of straw. At dusk the toro is set alight and the year's monthly weather and harvest are divined from the way it burns. The most striking element comes deep in the night: around 2 a.m., young men of the hamlet gather at the "yado," strip down to headbands, belly wraps, and straw sandals, split into two groups, and—carrying buckets and cups of sake and torches—visit the shrine to pray for protection from fire and for a bountiful harvest. They then make the rounds of every house, stepping up into the living rooms still in their sandals to serve the master sake, and smear kitchen-stove soot on the faces of brides newly married into the hamlet to invoke divine protection. At dawn, the oyuya is set ablaze and made to burn fiercely, and the year's harvest is divined from the strength of the flames, bringing the rite to a close.