Nozawa Onsen Fire Festival!

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All photos © Joseph Feil – www.josephfeil.com

All photos © Joseph Feil – www.josephfeil.com

 

The Nozawa Onsen Fire Festival is a big drawcard for visitors to Nozawa. It’s a great event, combining tradition, adrenaline, excitement with generous amounts of fire and alcohol mixed in. Many people plan their visits to Nozawa around the time of the festival, which is held in mid January – also the perfect time to visit for great snow and small crowds on the slopes.

About the event

Fire festivals in mid January in Japan are common, but Nozawa Onsen takes fire festivals to a new level. It is ranked in the top 3 fire festivals in Japan and is an impressive event. In Shinto tradition it is believed that everyone has 3 unlucky years (yakudoshi). For women they are; 19 years old, 33, or 37 and for males the yakudoshi years are 25, 42 or 60. The Yakudoshi males take center stage in this event. Together they build a shrine and on the night of the event the 42 year olds climb atop the shrine and the 25 year olds take defence.

Watching the fire festival

Stay warm but don’t wear your best goretex. During the firefights there is plenty of ash about and if you get close to the action decent sized embers can come flying your way. Wearing old clothing or at least not your best clothes is advised.

The main event

On the 15th of January from around 7pm there are fire works and an opening ceremony. After this the real fun begins with villagers attempting to attack the shrine with bundles of burning wood with the aim of setting it alight. The attacks start off with newborn babies strapped to their mothers back, then young children and teenagers pick up torches and have a go. By the time heavily intoxicated adults join the fray attacks are carried out at full force with no holding back. All the 25 year old villagers stand at the bottom of the shrine in defence, beating away attacks with pine branches. The 42 year old villagers sit atop the shrine drinking heavily (there is a lot of alcohol consumed by all parties). Despite their precarious position they do not hold back singing, taunting, even throwing bundles of sticks down to the crowds to be used for further attacks. The fighting goes for around an hour and a half, at which point everyone moves away from the shrine and it is set alight and burnt to the ground.

A custom at this and many other Japanese festivals is to offer “miki” – basically free sake. There will be villagers easily identified in happi coats with straw hats with bottles of sake hanging around their necks. This is a fun custom but it should be noted that cold sake goes down all too easy in the excitement of the festival and every year many people get extremely intoxicated. Take it easy and watch out for your mates – drinking heavily and cold snowy nights are a dangerous combination.
Nozawa Onsen Fire Festival - Up in flames

The climax - Burning of the shrine at the end of the fire festival

 

The fire festival is definitely the peak for accommodation in Nozawa Onsen so it’s a good idea to get in early. The most popular choices for accommodation in town are usually booked out months in advance.