Gozan no Okuribi

Gozan no Okuribi is a Bon sending-fire event held on the night of August 16th each year in Kyoto City, Kyoto Prefecture. Also widely known by the common name "Daimonji-yaki," it is nationally famous as a grand tradition heralding the end of Kyoto's summer, in which gigantic fire-characters are lit one after another on five mountains surrounding Kyoto.

It is a form of "okuribi" (sending fire), sending back to the other world the ancestral spirits who returned to this world during Bon, and in Kyoto this developed into a major event staged on the mountains overlooking the city. On the night of August 16th, from around 8 p.m., the five fires are lit one after another, beginning with the "Daimonji" (great character) on Mt. Nyoigatake in Higashiyama, followed by "Myōhō," "Funagata" (boat shape), "Hidari Daimonji," and "Toriigata" (torii shape). Firewood is burned at each fire bed, and gigantic characters and shapes glow red against the night mountainsides.

The Gozan sending fires, looked up at from the darkness-shrouded city of Kyoto, are solemn and dreamlike, striking the hearts of onlookers. These fires carry the feelings of people praying for gratitude to and the repose of their ancestors. Though there are various theories about its origins and they are uncertain, it has been protected and handed down by the people of Kyoto for centuries. A traditional event representative of Kyoto's summer alongside the Gion Festival, Gozan no Okuribi is a solemn prayer event of the summer night, symbolizing the faith alive in the ancient capital and the Japanese heart that cherishes the changing of the seasons.