Akibasan Fire Festival (with Video)

For the first time in three years, the Akibasan Fire Festival will go ahead.

The Akibasan Kongen Yabuse Matsuri — or the Akibasan Protection from Fire Festival — takes place at the Akibasan Shrine in the Itabashi district of Odawara City.

The festival, which dates from the 16th century, is ostensibly for offering protection from fire. A better description might be “fun with fire” — with robed priests doing a variety of activities with fire, including writing Chinese characters in the air with a flaming stick and firing arrows into a bonfire.

Note: the fire portion starts at 7 p.m.