Kan-nabi - where gods reside

Oto-matsuri is a fire festival held annually on 6 February in Shingu, at the southern end of Kii Peninsula, Wakayama Prefecture. It is in a sense a secret/sacred men’s business held at the Kamikura Shrine, whose deity is a large rock Kotobiki on top of the hill. Steep stone steps (538 steps) lead up to the rock from the shrine. Over 2000 men, young and old, dressed in white traditional costume walk up to the rock at dusk after visiting 3 local shrines in town. They carry a wooden torch - they bang each other's torch as they pass by on the way to the shrine. The gate to the hill-top rock closes around 7pm. Several messengers ran down to a small shrine half-way down the hill and receive sacred fire, which they take back up to the waiting crowd. The fire travels slowly through the crowd, lighting the torch carried by men until the whole hill top is lit with orange glow. Every now and then, roar rises from the eagerly waiting crowd echo through the valley. Then a sudden silence fell, and with a big roar, the gate opens and several lights descend the hill, like a shooting star. Some young compete to be the first one to reach the shrine gate, and others descend slowly, negotiating the uneven steps dimly lit by the fire. The festival is said to have 1400 year history, since a deity descended onto the rock. A site where gods descend/reside is kan-nabi, and in Japan’s traditional beliefs sites could be any natural places - a tree, forest, mountain, rock, river, waterfall…. Nachi Waterfall nearby is one of the well known kan-nabi, included in the 2004 world heritage nomination “Sacred sites and pilgrimage routes in the Kii Mountain Range”.