world's smallest festival !?

 Fudo-Myoo is a god of fire that is worshiped all over Japan. 


People call it "Ofudo-san" with affection. 

In my hometown, Hijiori Onsen, there are countless little temples and shrines, and the maintenance of this Ofudo-san is the responsibility of my family and the family who we call "Shimbun-ya san" because they deliver newspapers. 

May 28th was annual festival of Ofudo-san. 

Shimbunya-san and my mother made yummy local cuisine and put them nicely in the lacker ware and brought them to Ofudo-san. 


All day, Shimbunya-san and I sat in this little temple that allows only a few people to be seated at a time.


Local people arrived with offerings (money, sake, and food). We served them "Omiki" which is purifying sake and chatted a little. (great excuse to drink during the day!)

Behind the temple, there is another Ofudo-san which turned out to be out of reach. 


There is a small water fall up the little stream. In front of that is a huge rock. On top of the rock quietly sits another "Ofudo-san". 

We wanted to get there but snow and huge pieces of woods prevented us from going any further. 

So we decided to pray a little afar, we lit the candle, we offered sake and a bit of seasoned rice on a leaf.  


Shimbun-ya 's Oba-chan told me that this festival used to be quite big. People used to drink sake and dance all day in front of the temple.


Now many local young people don't even know about this festival. People are getting less and less religious... I feel like it's my obligation to preserve this precious little temple, and this world's smallest festival :-)