F E S T I V A L ／ FEST-254

Nunakuma Shrine Otebi Fire Ritual

沼名前神社 お手火神事ぬなくまじんじゃ おてびしんじ

The Otebi Ritual of Nunakuma Shrine is a fire festival held on the eve of the Gion rite (mikoshi procession) at Nunakuma Shrine (Tomo Gion-gu) in the port town of Tomo, Fukuyama City, Hiroshima—counted among Japan's three great fire festivals. Sacred fire is transferred to three "otebi," giant torches roughly 150–200 kilograms in weight and about 4 meters long, which white-robed parishioners and young men shoulder and carry up the shrine's steep stone steps to the worship hall over about an hour. As sparks rain down from the blazing torches, the bearers climb the steps in relays in a furious spectacle, a rite praying for safety at sea and for freedom from illness in the town. After the otebi fire purifies impurity, the mikoshi procession follows the next day. Said to have begun in the Edo period, it is designated an intangible folk cultural property of Fukuyama City and is a component asset of the Japan Heritage "Tomonoura."