2010 Daimonji Fire Festival Video is here.

map of the daimonji fire festival

Daimonji video 2008

Every August 16 since the 1600s, Kyoto marks the end of o-Bon season by lighting up the hillsides with giant kanji, starting at 8 p.m. It’s called Daimonji Gozan Okuribi, literally “Giant characters five mountains sendoff fires.” This marks their function as a sendoff for the ancestral spirits that visit their hometowns in the summer festival season. I walked by the myou and hou characters today and saw two others in the distance in the clear skies. The firewood is already in the fire baskets, wrapped in plastic in case there is any rain before the festival starts.

dai, unlit

dai, lit

hou

myou