On 22 October, hundreds of torches pass through the village from six in the evening into the night.
One of Kyoto's three most unusual festivals (京都三大奇祭): as darkness falls, the men of Kurama village carry on their shoulders about a hundred torches of wood and straw, some huge and extremely heavy, shouting ‘sairei-ya, sairyo’ along the main street, lit by fires set at intervals, until they gather in front of the gate of Kurama-dera for the passage of two mikoshi, the sacred palanquins that carry the deity in procession. According to the shrine, the tradition goes back to 940, when the deity Yuki was moved here from Kyoto and its procession was lit with torches of reeds gathered along the Kamo River.
Yuki Shrine stands along the path that climbs to Kurama-dera, in the mountain village at the far north of Kyoto city. The festival has been registered as an intangible cultural property of the city of Kyoto since 1 June 1983.
ℹ️ The shrine can be visited at any time. The festival is held every year on 22 October from about 18:00 until after midnight, and is not postponed for bad weather except in exceptional circumstances; in the event of a typhoon it may be cancelled or scaled down. Very heavy crowds and traffic restrictions at the small Kurama Station on the evening of the festival.
🚉 Kurama · 6 min walk
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