Want To Walk On Fire? Annual Fire-Walking Practice Event at Mt.Takao, Tokyo

On March 13th, a unique ritual, annual Fire-Walking Practice event of Yakuoin Temple called "Hiwatari Matsuri" was held at the foot of Mt. Takao. It is a training event for one kind of Japanese Buddhism that took in a Japanese Shinto aspect, to be concrete it is a mountain worship. The monks are called "Yamabushi" and they are distinguished from usual Buddhist monks. 

Though it might be difficult to see clearly in the photos, some of the "Yamabushi" monks put a small black accessory on their head. Actually their wear is especially different from other Buddhist monks' because they stay in a mountain to train themselves with various practices which are physically difficult. This "Fire-Walking (Hiwatari)" is one of their traditional practices. 

In the beginning they burn piled logs on the ground. The fire becomes huge and it takes time to make all logs burn down as you can see in the sequence of photos which are laid out in upper two rows. After that, the monks walk on the smoldering field full of embers.

In old times these were hidden practices, but nowadays monks probably became more open-minded and they do some of their practices in public, and allow people to join it. For this Fire-Walking Practice, too, people can join the ritual and walk on the burned field after the monks.

The monks also sell amulets for preventing fire as shown on the lower right hand side photo.