F E S T I V A L ／ FEST-261

Yutoku Inari Shrine Autumn Grand Festival (Ohitaki Fire Ritual)

祐徳稲荷神社 秋季大祭（お火たき）ゆうとくいなりじんじゃ しゅうきたいさい おひたき

At Yutoku Inari Shrine — counted among Japan's three great Inari shrines — the Ohitaki is a fire ritual held on a December night as part of the Autumn Grand Festival. Descended from the Niiname-sai harvest-thanksgiving tradition, the rite begins with the chief priest reciting a norito invocation, after which a purified flame from the altar is transferred to a torch and used to ignite the "oyama" — a mound of stacked wood encircled by green bamboo. The dried bamboo bursts and crackles as the pile roars into a pillar of sacred fire reaching some ten-odd meters into the night sky. Standing in the glow of the flames is believed to purge a year's worth of sin and defilement and to grant freedom from illness; those who cannot reach the fire have a proxy hold up their undergarments or a photograph, and many carry home a piece of the cooled charcoal. Said to be roughly 350 years old, the festival also features amazake brewed from the new rice crop, served to worshippers.