🏮 Akiba no Hi Matsuri

秋葉の火まつり

Hamamatsu, Shizuoka (Akiba Shrine) · Every year on 15 December

Traditional performing arts

92 days to go
Rooms around Hamamatsu, Shizuoka fill up while the festival is on.

The Akiba Fire Festival is held at Akiba Temple on Mount Akiba in Tenryu Ward, Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka Prefecture, on the 15th and 16th of December every year. The festival centers on a ritual offering of seventy-five trays of food to the fire-guarding tengu Akiba Sanjakubo Daigongen, in prayer for protection against fire. On the 15th, a ceremony is solemnly performed to send off Sanjakubo, who visits fire festivals throughout the country; on the 16th, a ceremony welcomes Sanjakubo back. Events begin around 8 p.m., starting at the Shinden hall where Sanjakubo Daigongen is enshrined, and a procession of monks and ascetics chanting sutras circles the temple grounds, enlivened by a scattering of small rice cakes. Free gohei-mochi and tengu soup are served to visitors. In the climax, the goma fire-walking, monks stand atop the goma altar, chant mantras amid crimson flames, and perform the "Four Heavens ascetic practice" of flying a blank white paper kite. Afterwards, led by senior ascetics, visitors also walk barefoot over the embers, purifying themselves with the sacred fire.

Getting there

There is no nearest station. If coming by car, it is about 30 minutes from Hamamatsu Inasa Interchange on the Shin-Tomei Expressway, or along National Route 152. Parking is available.