It’s unfortunate that the only way to see a great bonfire here is to look at the one printed on this 15-meter-tall hanging screen. However, a real pyre is twice as tall - an impressive 30 meters, and weighs around 10 tons. That is why it’s not actually displayed here - it’s simply too large even for this high-ceilinged hall.

They say that If the great pyre crumbles in the direction of the mountains, it portends “abundant harvests,” and if it crumbles in the direction of the sea, it portends “abundant fishing.” As soon as the pyre falls to the ground, participants start scrambling to take home the bamboo streamer rod attached to the tip of the pyre. Bringing home the rod and placing it as decoration on one’s home shrine will bring happiness to that household.

Now, we can’t really light one up now, but let’s try to experience what it’s like to light up a great pyre.
It’s unfortunate that the only way to see a great pyre here is printed on a hanging screen. The one shown on this screen is 15 meters tall. However, the real thing is twice as tall - an impressive 30 meters, and weighs around 10 tons. That is why it’s not actually displayed here - it’s simply too large even for this high-ceilinged hall.

One of Japan’s three great pyre festivals, the Notojima Kōda Fire Festival, takes place in Notojima’s Kōda town every year on the last Saturday of July. On the night of the festival, a procession of a portable shrine and seven tower lantern floats of varying sizes set off for the pyre site. The lantern floats are lit by a sacred fire purified at the shrine, and that same fire is passed by the head priest to the procession leader, who then uses it to light the local residents’ own hand torches.

The hand torches are made from bamboo and wheat straw and measure around 1.8 meters. Participants constantly move the torches in a set rhythm so that they do not go out while they revolve around the great pyre. Little by little, the ring of people shrink ever closer to the pyre until the ringleader cries out “kakare!” or “Light it up,” and then everyone throws their torches into the pyre simultaneously. At once the pyre flares up to make a colossal torch.

They say that If the great pyre crumbles in the direction of the mountains, it portends “abundant harvests,” and if it crumbles in the direction of the sea, it portends “abundant fishing.” As soon as the pyre falls to the ground, participants start scrambling to take home the bamboo streamer rod attached to the tip of the pyre. Bringing home the rod and placing it on one’s home shrine will bring happiness to that household.

This festival has also been known as the “Osuzumi Festival” since ancient times because it takes place on a cool summer night. Its preparations are also rather peculiar. Schoolchildren form into groups according to their schools and take on separate roles in preparing for the festival. This custom drew enough attention to cement the Notojima Kōda Fire Festival as an Ishikawa Prefecture Intangible Cultural Treasure. The 4th and 5th graders’ group is called “Kamihibashi,” the sixth and seventh graders’ group is “Fujikiri,” the eighth graders are called “Maakai,”, and the ninth graders are called “Hayashikata”. These student groups carry the different tower lantern floats. Despite the importance of each group’s role, nowadays most of them are handled by groups of older youths, thanks to the growing birth rate crisis.

Now, we can’t really light one up now, but let’s try to experience what it’s like to light up a great pyre.