The Nozawaonsen Fire Festival is a famous event throughout Japan to celebrate the beginning of the year and pray for a good harvest. When I told my teachers that I was planning to go, they all responded the same way by saying it was very spectacular but they themselves had never been! I found it to be quite strange that one of the most famous Japanese festivals is happening 15 minutes from Iiyama and they opt to watch it all on telly instead. So Jo (a fellow Iiyama gaijin) and I met up about 6ish for the short drive to Nozawaonsen to experience first hand this notorious festival.
The evening started off with some frantic searching for a car parking space and in the end we settled for a quiet spot away from the potential crowds. Jo and I met Tamaki (one of Jo's work coleagues) who took us to his friends house for some pre-festival drinks. As we were getting comfy around the kotatsu with free flowing beer and nabe, I noticed that there was a TV in the corner showing a group of middle-aged men wearing outfits made of straw, sitting in a circle amongst crowds of TV cameras and press. Apparently it was a live showing of the pre-festival activities which entailed a group of 42 year old men (42 is an unlucky age) singing and chanting whilst drinking a required minimum of 1.8L of sake.
As the men got drunker and drunker, they set fire to a huge bundle of straw in the house (by hitting two stones together no less), dragged it outside and began the proceedings. Basically, two groups of drunk men (25 year olds and 42 year olds - 25 is also unlucky) have to protect a pre-built wooden castle from charging members of the public waving straw bundles ablaze with flames.
We were quite close to the castle so this is all I could get on camera!
Its starts off with young children harmlessly attacking the castle (and the men) with small flames but then it gets really serious when the teenagers and other adults attempt to set fire to this castle. The 25 year olds hang off ropes (I later found out that this was because they were too drunk to stand - think hanging onto an overhead handrail of a moving train...) and hit the oncoming attackers with branches to put out their flames. The 42 year olds (also just as drunk) sit on top of the castle putting out any stray flames and also helping to defend it. There were no fences or officals holding people back - it was a free-for-all drunken attack with flames and flammable objects! I just stood and watched in complete astonishment and kept waiting for the Casualty theme tune to kick in. At one point, I saw three semi-concious men being dragged away with blackened faces and bloody clothes. As with most japanese festivals, there were of course 'officials' who's job it was to provide everyone with free sake from a communal cup. I however, was too mesmorised with what was going on to accept...
These kids were apparently shouting "we want sake" at the men on top of the castle.
The men hanging from the ropes are all 25 years old.
And in good spirits!
Although this looks like a man rescuing a child from a burning building, it is actually a man taking his child nearer to the flames so he can light his sticks!
The man on the right has a bottle of comunal sake tied round his neck - he is known as an 'official'
The 25 year olds fighting off the public!
And the grand finale - the castle goes up in flames (all the fighters have been carried off by this point!)
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