As the sun peeked through an overcast sky in Kyoto, Japan, monks wearing pom-pom vests and black boxes, known as tokin, asked in front of Mibu Dera, one of the city’s oldest temples. These were the Yamabushi (mountain hermits), part of a Buddhist sect known as Shugendō.
To enter the sacred precincts of the temple, each monk had to prove that he was a true Yamabushi by answering a series of questions about the sect’s beliefs, dress, and tools. Only those with satisfactory answers would be granted access.
They were watched by a trio of kids in light jackets, with six curious eyes trying to figure out what was going on, along with me, a Korean-American photographer with two big eyes filled with the same curiosity.
They were preparing for the Goma Fire Ritual as part of the Setsubun Matsuri or Setsubun Festival, held the day before the start of spring according to the Asian lunar calendar. For centuries, the Japanese have used the changing of the seasons to exorcise past misfortunes and offer prayers for future safety and prosperity. In Kyoto, Setsubun festivals are held at many of the city’s temples and attract crowds of thousands who celebrate a variety of rituals to bring good luck and ward off evil spirits.
The children and I soon followed the monks into the grounds of Mibu Temple, where a pile of hinoki, or cypress leaves, was ready in front of the main hall for the Goma Fire Ritual.
The monks began the ritual with loud drums, blowing of the giant Horagai shell and chanting, as they lit a fire to burn the Hinoki leaves and the gomagi, wooden sticks symbolizing human desires (the root of pain) that had been added to the pile. The fire will ward off evil spirits for the coming year. A huge cloud of smoke rose in front of the main hall and the nearby Thousand Body Stupa, which contains exactly 1,000 statues of Amida Nyorai, or the Buddha of Limitless Light, and Jizo, a Bodhisattva known for compassion.
Busy little monks poured buckets of water around the fire as ear-splitting drums rang out and the thundering fire swallowed up everyone’s bad luck.
As the senior monks chanted and prayed, the unruly orange fire was kept under control with the help of sweaty junior monks who poured buckets of water around its perimeter.
At Yoshida Jinja or Yoshida Shrine, the highlight of the day was the Tsuina-shiki ceremony, when a devil god named Hososhi, from ancient China, with four golden eyes and one horn, chased away the red, blue and yellow oni, a type of demon in Japanese folklore, with a huge spear and a terrifying roar. Children in white robes held lighted torches to ignite the action. All around them, firemen were busy extinguishing the embers falling from the torches.
For Setsubun, people also scatter soybeans, said to ward off evil spirits, in a ritual called Mame Maki, often shouting, “Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!” (“Devils out! Good luck inside!”). People also throw old good luck charms into a giant bonfire in a ceremony known as Karo-sai.
Among the crowds lined up at Yoshida Shrine just three hours before the Tsuina-shiki ceremony, one of the youngest was Miu Imamura, 4, of Kyoto, who wore a homemade oni mask pushed onto her forehead as she and her sister lined up with their mother, Yuina Imamura, to buy lucky beans known as fuku-mame. In Setsubun, children traditionally make and wear oni masks, although the tradition seemed to be dying out. ‘
New Year prayers are also part of the day. In Mibu, Yasuko Isoda, a native Kyotoite, prayed for the safety of her family and the people affected by the Noto earthquake. Ms. Imamura, the mother of the girl with the oni mask, prayed for the health of her family and no disasters for everyone in 2024.
After the Tsuina-shiki, people began to line up for a chance to receive hamaya, or sacred arrows, from a miko or shrine maiden, who danced holding arrows in one hand and a bell in the other. Many of the arrows were later placed on a bonfire to burn for good luck.
Yoshida Shrine’s Setsubun Festival is one of the largest in Kyoto and there are more than 800 food stalls at the entrance and inside the festival. During the festival, visitors endlessly brought their own amulets to burn, and volunteers piled the amulets into a huge tower for the Karo-sai ceremony. At 11 p.m. on the night of Setsubun, the shinshoku or shinto priests lit the talisman-filled tower with their torches on both sides and let the talismans and gods within them be free and return home.
The fire raged, consuming the talismans and sacred arrows, seemingly granting the wishes of those who had brought them to be thrown into the fire and ushering in the Year of the Blue Dragon, with a grand finale.
