Yassai Hossai Matsuri

I haven’t visited any festivals recently (matsuri season is over!) so i was thrilled to find out about this Yassai Hossai fire walking festival. It’s held each year on the 14th of December in Sakai and within easy reach of my location.

The festival started with a legend of fishermen warming up an image of their deity (a god for good fishing named Ebisu) which had drifted ashore near Iwatsuta Shrine, by burning 108 bundles of firewood. The Japanese “Yassai Hossai” originates from the words “108 logs”.

The festival is a bit on the small side and things started a bit unorthodox with the local school band playing YMCA and the local elder ladies club dancing to some loudspeaker music. But around 8pm things started to look up. After a short theater performance (the Ebisu story) they big bonfire was lit … and shortly after (they fire didn’t take too long to burn down!)  the fire walking began … which looked absolutely amazing!

I am planing to go again next year and hopefully that time i will score a position in the first row. This time i was locked in at the 3rd row and had to take pictures by holding my camera over my head … the end result was a lot of blurry shots of feet and wrongly framed objects. Thankfully i still got some usable shots.

Transport: Take the train to Ishizu (or Ishizugawa) both trainstations are within 5 minute walking distance of this shrine. Parking space is very limited so leave your car at home.

Website: The Osaka tourism website has something about it – but it’s a small festival so there isn’t much info available on the net.