One of the more unusual festivals in Japan takes place in Fujiyoshida, the largest city on the north slope of volcanic Mount Fuji. Known as Hi Matsuri or the Fire Festival, it is more like two festivals combined. The first day (August 26) marks the end of the Japanese summer and the end of the official Mount Fuji climbing season, and the second day (August 27) celebrates the beginning of autumn.

Mid-afternoon on August 26, crowds gather at Fujiyoshida’s main Shinto shrine, called Fuji Sengen Jinja, home of the goddess Konohanasakuya-hime no Mikoto. She is the goddess of 3,500-meter-high Mount Fuji, the symbol of fire safety and safe childbirth, and the patron deity of firemen and midwives.

The priests at Fuji Sengen Jinja have prepared a traditional portable shrine, called Myojin-san, as a special carriage for the goddess. Weighing nearly a ton, it is hoisted on the shoulders of 50 men wearing the short, decorative summer coats known as hanten and carried into the city streets. It is followed by another portable shrine resembling an orange Mount Fuji, called Oyama-san, carried by more men and by two smaller shrines, or mini-mikoshi, supported by children.

The procession travels along Honcho-dori, one of the main streets of the city, which is lined with people, food vendors and dozens Taimatsu, over-sized bundles of firewood about one meter in diameter at the base and three meters tall. After the procession reaches its destination at Kamiyoshida Community Center, the party begins. There is dancing at the community center, the food stalls are opened, and the wooden structures, along with many smaller bonfires, are lit. The blazes are meant to satisfy the goddess so that she will prevent the eruption of Mount Fuji during the coming year.

On August 27, the bearers return the goddess’s portable shrine to Fuji Sengen Jinja, taking an indirect route through town and into the forest. They are greeted by a smaller crowd of people, many of whom hold a long blade of susuki, an autumn grass. As the bearers carry the shrine into the Fuji Sengen Jinja complex, the crowd falls into step. The bearers begin to move faster, and so does the crowd, circling around several times until all appear to be chasing each other. It’s a relatively low-key event compared to the previous day.

Although it is not known how or when the Fire Festival began, documents referring to permits for the bonfires date back to the Warring States Period of the 1500s. The Fire Festival coincides with Obon, the Buddhist festival of the dead, during which fires are lit to attract souls of the deceased. Traditionally, members of families in which a death has occurred since the previous Fire Festival are forbidden from looking into the bonfires’ flames. To avoid doing so, such families sometimes leave the city during the festival, a practice called tema ni deru.

British Columbia travel writer Toni Dabbs is a regular contributor to The Cultured Traveler.