The Fire Ritual at Yoshida Shrine
- notajournaljapan
- Feb 5
- 3 min read
Early February in Kyoto is still cold.
Around this time of year, Yoshida Shrine, located in Sakyo Ward, hosts one of the city’s largest Setsubun festivals. The shrine grounds fill with people, food stalls line the paths, and as night falls, large fires are lit. The festival stays open late, lanterns glowing in the dark, creating an atmosphere that feels quietly mysterious rather than festive in a loud way.
Yoshida Shrine is often described as “a little
different” from other shrines. This may be because it has a unique history and way of thinking about Shinto. Unlike modern Shinto, which is often associated with state traditions, Yoshida Shinto developed much earlier as a philosophical approach to understanding what Shinto itself truly is. Here, the gods are not treated merely as friendly characters, but as beings that explain the structure of the universe and the nature of order.
That may sound abstract, but in everyday life Yoshida Shrine functions like any other shrine. People visit to pray for protection, good luck, success in studies, meaningful relationships, or harmony in marriage.
Every year in early February, the shrine holds its Setsubun festival. As a Japanese person, I had always used the word “Setsubun” casually, thinking of it simply as something that happens in February. Yet written in Chinese characters, it literally means “dividing the seasons.” It suggests a ritual moment of separation—letting go of what has passed. February was also the beginning of the new year in the old lunar calendar, making Setsubun a symbolic boundary between the old and the new.
The event I visited was called the Karo-sai, or Fire Ritual. Across Japan, people receive amulets and talismans from shrines to receive protection or blessings for a year. When the year ends, these items are not thrown away. Instead, they are returned to the shrine with gratitude and burned in a ritual fire. The Fire Ritual at Yoshida Shrine is exactly that moment.
The flames are far more powerful than I had imagined. When the fire catches, a murmur ripples through the crowd. Standing under the cold winter sky, watching the large fire burn, I felt as if something was slowly being released, even though I was only looking on.
The idea of purification through fire is easy to understand intuitively. Similar rituals exist in many Western traditions as well, and the scene even carries a faint, witch-like feeling. As I watched the fire, I started thinking about what else might have the power to purify.If we think in terms of the four fundamental elements, water comes next. Washing things away with water easily becomes a ritual act. But when I tried to imagine purification through wind or earth, it suddenly became much harder. Fire and water are opposites, yet both feel equally powerful.
There is a small but intriguing wordplay in Japanese. Fire can be read as ka, and water as mi. This is about Japanese sounds rather than meanings, but when combined, ka and mi become kami—the word for “god” in Japanese.
The overwhelming power to burn everything away, or to wash everything clean, may have been what ancient people once called “god.”
During the Setsubun festival, many food stalls fill the grounds of Yoshida Shrine, adding another layer of enjoyment. During the day, a central ritual called Oni-yarai is performed, in which demons are symbolically driven away with beans.
Travelers visiting Japan around this time of year may wonder why images of demons suddenly appear everywhere in the city.
If you happen to be in Kyoto in early February, visiting the Setsubun festival at Yoshida Shrine offers a rare chance to experience the turning of the seasons in a very tangible way—something you are unlikely to encounter at any other time of year.
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Written by Nori (NOTA)
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