In Tokyo, monks stroll throughout fireplace—and you’ll be part of them

In Japan, even essentially the most mundane parts of life are sacred. The guardian deity of bathrooms is revered in Myotokuji Temple in Izu. Tokyo’s Mikami Shrine welcomes balding males of their droves, searching for to divinely revitalise their hairlines. There are shrines to misplaced cats, damaged pottery and the curing of warts.

So, I’m not shocked to seek out Takao-san Yakuo-in, a Buddhist temple on the western fringe of Tokyo, doesn’t have a carpark however a Car Purification Bay, the place motorists deliver their wheels to be blessed. It’s not laborious to see why individuals’s minds flip so simply to the chic right here. Macaques chatter within the maples on the slopes of Mount Takao, which rears up behind the temple corridor. The odor of cypresses mingles with the agarwood rising from the drums smouldering within the courtyard. Cherry blossom, stirred from its branches by a heat breeze, falls to the tarmac like soft-pink snow.

In the centre of the courtyard is a big bonfire made up of coniferous branches. Leaning in opposition to it are 1000’s of ema — wood prayer plaques inscribed with kanji characters. There’s a competition environment right here; early birds have laid out picnics beside the railings, and meals stalls emanate the scraping of spatulas flipping okonomiyaki pancakes.

The clattering of bells begins to rise from contained in the temple. Out come two dozen conch shell-blowing monks, their white robes wrapped on the waist with deer pelts. The monks of Takao-san Yakuo-in belong to Shugendo, a sect of esoteric Buddhism that includes parts of mountain worship and Shinto, Japan’s indigenous faith. They’re famend for his or her excessive practices, which embrace meditating in waterfalls, hanging from cliffs by their ankles, and — as is the aim of at the moment’s Hiwatari-sai firewalking competition — strolling on scorching coals.

Festivals have lengthy fascinated me — a lot that I’ve written a ebook, Fiesta, all about them as expressions of tradition. They showcase, of their various methods, the extremes of human behaviour. I discover I’m essentially the most intrigued when customs really feel obscure — by no means extra so than at occasions like this, when individuals embrace ache.

The monks line up across the bonfire, pounding drums with mallets. An aged, purple-robed man is helped, shuffling, into the world. Next, a workforce of archers fires arrows in the direction of the 4 corners of the world. One of them overshoots and virtually hits the gang, eliciting gasps adopted by laughter.

This is a visceral facet of Japanese faith that may be skilled at Shugendo ceremonies everywhere in the nation. At Kinpusenji Temple in Yoshino, you may be part of would-be monks in a Shugendo workshop, trekking into the mountains as an act of ascetic meditation. They consider their rituals bind them nearer to nature and imbue them with energy. For the traveller, these practices supply a wild counterpoint to the serene temple-tramping usually related to Japan — which many go to with preconceptions, solely to be confounded.

Finally, it’s time for the bonfire to be lit. A monk ladles purifying water onto the branches, earlier than 4 others strategy holding torches, which they push into the pile. Thick smoke begins to pour from the center of the bonfire as flames hiss from its edges, finally swallowing all in a wall of fireside. Monks chant, staring in a trance; others throw wood buckets of water, to not extinguish the oil-fuelled flames, however to unfold them. My face prickles with warmth.

The monks start raking the coals into a fair mattress utilizing lengthy, hooked bamboo poles. Only now, lastly, can the firewalking start. The aged monk who I’d seen shuffling into the world goes first, traipsing barefoot with sudden uprightness, as if the warmth has soothed the aching of his joints. More observe, some flapping in a panic, others continuing calmly — a lifetime of meditation having educated their minds to beat bodily struggling.

I’m glad to observe for now. But Shugendo is open to all — and, because the wind rustles the maples on the paths behind the temple, it’s laborious to withstand the sensation that there’s one thing sacred happening right here.