Japan Diaries: Nozawa Onsen Fire Festival (Part One)

Japan Diaries: Fire Festival (Dosojin Matsuri) at Nozawa Onsen Village, Japan on 15th January 2019. Photos taken by me and Hai with Canon D70 DSLR and Canon Pixel 3XL.

Every year, on the 15th of January, the quaint and sleepy Nozawa Onsen village starts finishing up their preparations for their annual Fire Festival. It's a exciting and fun festival and Hai and I arrived to this village two days before just to witness it. In fact, we planned our whole Japan four week honeymoon around this festival. Hai had intended to come here last time he went to Japan  but he missed it by a few days. This time around, we booked a room at the Elizabeth Hotel for three nights. We absolutely suggest booking early as accommodation gets booked out early!

Held on the same day every year, this festival pays tribute to the Fire Gods (also known as dosojin). The festival originally was a folklore cultural event asking the gods to bring good harvest, health, good ski season and good fortune for the upcoming year. Now its done to celebrate the birth of a family’s first child, to dispel evil spirits and also to pray for happy marriage.

13th and 14th of January

The trees start getting cut down in October and bought down from the surrounding mountains and the wood is prepared. It takes approximately 100 villagers to build the huge structure that would be the main attraction at the festival. It is also known as the shrine or shaden and it starts getting built on the 13th of January continuing until late at night on the 14th. The main event starts on the 15th: the "Fire-Setting Battle". This staged battle is performed by only men that are 42 and 25 years of age which are deemed as "unlucky ages".

The morning of 15th January

Hai and I went down to the main grounds to witness the villagers complete the shaden on the 15th. The villagers work hard - tightening the structure with ropes, place piles of wicks at the top, and shovelling snow up so the area is clean before the main event starts.  Stripped down logs are assembled into a tall 7m high shaden with a platform at the top for the group of the 42 year old men to sit on during the staged battle. The 25 year olds will stand at the bottom standing guard.

When the shaden has been completed, the priest from the Kosuge shrine performs a ceremony endowing it with a dosojin. 

Hai and I went back to the main street to have dinner and to prepare to come back at night. We came back and gathered around the shaden while other villagers and tourists waited with us. There were thousands of people waiting and as the sun set, the festival began. 

Part Two: The night of 15th January

Stayed tuned as Part Two blog post will feature the night time of the 15th. We were so excited to see this once in a lifetime event!