Chinkasai Fire Festival (Itsukushima Shrine)

About

On New Year's Eve, December 31, from 6 pm for about 30 minutes, Mikasa-no-hama, the beach in front of Itsukushima Shrine, is overrun with torches in a festival to keep fire away. Miyajima residents bring roughly 1,000 torches from around the island, ranging from giants carried by 20 to 30 people to small ones about 50 cm long. Sacred fire kindled in the shrine's purification hall is carried by torch to a big bundle at the ritual site on the beach and from there to the giant torches. These are then hauled along the shore to shouts of "taimatsu, yoi yoi," until the beach seems to be on fire. People light their small torches from the sacred flame, put them out, and take them home to the household altar as protection from fire for the year. Until the Edo period this was a town event led by mountain ascetics, called Tsugomori Yamabushi; after the Meiji Restoration the shrine took it over.

Sources

• OfficialMiyajima Tourist Association www.miyajima.or.jp
• OfficialMiyajima Tourist Association www.miyajima.or.jp

Last checked: Oct 10, 2026. Event information is based on official announcements, but changes may not always be reflected here. Please check each official website for accurate details.

Other events this month

• Hiroshima Dreamination