Writing Fukushima #11 Iwaki City in Hamadori: Consoling the Ancestors

Kindly catching, holding

the flames — the hill at Festival

of the Dead

(nengoro ni hi wo daki-tomete bon no yama)

Bon: A Buddhist festival held from the 13th to the 16th day of the 7th lunar month. The spirits of the ancestors are invited back and remembered.

Light is a necessity for every observance connected to "Bon," or the Festival of the Dead, in order to welcome back the spirits of the ancestors returned from the next world. We have greeting fires, seeing-off fires, hanging lanterns, floating lanterns, the great bonfire of Kyoto. All these lights are provided by fire. From ancient times fire has been worshipped as a "yorishiro," something capable of attracting spirits. With fire the ancestral gods are invited in and welcomed, and with fire their spirits are consoled. There are, I am told, many fire festivals held at Bon in the southern part of Hamadori, one of the three regions of Fukushima.

Hearing that throughout Iwaki City (the principal city of Hamadori) it is the custom to light welcoming fires on all the days of Bon, I visited Okunitama Shrine. Beside the shrine is the grave of one of the governors of Iwaki in ancient times, a reminder that this area was once the center of Iwaki Province. At about four in the afternoon Mr. Yamana, the head of the shrine, began to kindle pine, cypress, and cedar trees at the entrance. Burning a welcoming fire every day during the festival must be a deep expression of respect for the ancestors as well as of belief.

Up until several years ago, the people of Kamiyasaku, also in Iwaki City, held a fire-throwing ceremony on every day of the Bon Festival, and they still do, though not on all the days. Its name is "Te-e-mai koikoi" or "Hiboi-nage," that is, "Come close, come!" or "Fire throwing." Children climb Yokote Hill, a small hill in the village, and throw burning wheat or barley straw from the top. This year I watched the ceremony unfold.

At 5:30 PM, 20 children from first grade on up, with bunches of straw about a meter long in their hands, began to walk towards the top of Yokote Hill. It took about 15 minutes to ascend the steep slope and then at the top all at once a wonderful view, of Shinmaiko Beach and the whole Kamiyasaku area, stretched out at our feet.

When the Buddhist rites for the 33rd or 50th (depending on the region) anniversary of death are over, the spirits of the dead are believed to leave the earth for the heavens and become ancestral gods, moving from their graves to the mountains. They dwell near the village, in a low hill with a beautiful oval shape. In Kamiyasaku, this is Yokote Hill. From there, one can see the entire area and so the ancestral spirits can watch over the mountains and rivers of their birthplace and over their descendants. Today the "Fire Throwing" ceremony is thought of as a ceremony to prevent fire and epidemics, but originally it was a festival to console the dead and honor the spirits of the ancestors by throwing fire, and there is even a theory that it was the origin of fireworks.

The children called out their own names, saying "Come here, come. It's [own name inserted] calling!" (te-e-mai koikoi! ○○ de gozattō) Then they waved the burning straw brands around and threw them towards the bottom of the hill. The bigger children looked after the little ones who were frightened of the fire. As the bigger children threw their brands one by one, the smaller ones lost their fear and joined in with loud voices. One after another, the fiery brands, trailing luxuriant tails, disappeared among the trees. The adults and the youngest children looked on below. As the brands fell cleanly to the bottom, shouts of joy went up, as noisy as if it were a display of fireworks. A four-year-old boy whose older brother had climbed the hill looked up at the top and with awe in his voice said, "I'll do that too someday!" The old people looked up at the hill remembering their own childhood days. In this way, the simple ceremony is carried on from generation to generation, and someday they will all dwell together in this village hill.

When it was completely dark, and the chirps of the evening cicadas had given way to the crickets, cries of "It's all over now!" rang out from the hilltop, and the children descended the darkened road down the hill. In the old days, they say, it was only the boys who participated in this ceremony, so it must have been both a ceremony honoring the spirits of the dead and also a rite of passage for male children. The children, having fulfilled their important role, looked very cheerful and pleased with themselves. Behind me, the outline of Yokote Hill was submerged in the velvet night.

Haiku and text: Madoka Mayuzumi

Translation: Janine Beichman

Photo credit: Fukushima-Minpo Co., Ltd.

First publication: 9 September 2014, Fukushima-Minpo Newspaper

Photo caption: Children heading for Yokoteyama