🏮 Toba no Hi Matsuri

鳥羽の火祭り

Nishio, Aichi (Toba Shinmei Shrine) · Every year on the 2nd Sunday of February

Toba no Himatsuri is held every year on the second Sunday of February at Toba Shinmei Shrine in Toba-cho, Nishio City, Aichi Prefecture. It is a traditional fire festival designated in 2004 as a nationally important intangible folk cultural property. The origin is not clear, but it is said to have begun about 1,200 years ago during the Taido era (806–810), and it was held on the seventh day of the first lunar month until 1970, when it moved to its current schedule. The central figures of the festival are the shin’o (sacred men), chosen from Fuku-chi and Inui-chi, divided east and west by the Miyanishi River. In principle they are men in their yakudoshi (unlucky) age of 25. On the day of the festival, after purification with ice water and in Mikawa Bay, fire is lit on two 5-meter flame structures called suzumi, the symbol of the festival. The shin’o and attendants called neko leap into them and compete to pull out the sacred tree and the twelve ropes. The outcome is used to divine the weather and the harvest for the year.

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