August 16, 2024 : Kyoto Sending Bonfires of Five Mountains 2024
© 安岡喜晴 (JoyShine)
In Shinto, the soul leaves the body and watches over its descendants, and then returns to our world during the Bon Festival and the New Year.
And every year in Kyoto, at the end of the Bon Festival, there is a ceremony to send the spirits of our ancestors back to the spirit world, and today we went to see the ceremony.
To send the spirits, big characters are written in fire on five mountains, and this year I could see two of those five characters.
Last year we walked along Imadegawa Street from the direction of Ginkakuji Temple.
(August 16, 2023 : Kyoto Sending Bonfires of Five Mountains 2023)
This year we biked along Higashi-Horikawa Street from Oike Street to Imadegawa Street,
parked our bikes in the bike parking lot at Karasuma Imadegawa, and walked along Imadegawa Street to the Kamo Ohashi Bridge.
I had planned to go down the slope at the Kamo Ohashi Bridge to the Kamo River Delta, but it was too crowded to get down there,
so I just walked straight across the Kamo Ohashi Bridge.
Even so, I could see the two characters "Dai" and "Hou" clearly, so I think I ended up with a better view than last year.
By the way, it seems quite difficult to photograph both characters during the ceremony,
one from the Kamo River Delta and the other from the Kamo Ohashi Bridge.
The two spots are close to each other, but it is too crowded to move from one to the other in a short time.
So, it seems that planning to shoot different characters in different locations is quite challenging.
Next year, we will try to see the other three characters from a different position.
(Movie : Kyoto Sending Bonfires of Five Mountains 2024)
(Movie : Kyoto Sending Bonfires of Five Mountains 2024)