Usa Fire Puja Video
Expectations… I know that I have written about them before. Never the less, yesterday for my day off I planned to go to a place that I had envisioned looking a certain way in my mind. I was visualizing a peaceful little mountain town surrounded in greenery, mist, moss, and old stone. Upon arrival, after a 4 hour train ride that included a 120 mile an hour jaunt on the Shinkansen (bullet train), I arrived in Usa in the Kunisaki Penninsula, which is way up north and east from where I am staying in Haenosaki. I left at 6am before the sun came up and I arrived at 11am. The train station was small and to my surprise, was not surrounded by moss and mountains, well it was, but they were off in a distance that looked further than I had planned on walking. Keeping in mind I am still nursing a stress fracture in my foot, 20km walks are not in my reality. The town Usa was indeed small and it did have an err of excitement about it, however as I realized from attempting to decipher the map that was completely in Japanese Kanji characters everything required getting away from the train station either on foot, bus, or taxi at a minimum of 5km and most places being 20+km. The closest site was Usa shrine and Bungo-Takada a retro town. Both were in 5km in opposite directions. I decided to start with the shrine. I was planning on taking a bus, however when it became obvious that the bus schedule was too confusing to figure out, I opted for a taxi. Upon arrival I was greeted by a large bright red Torri gate, a temple town, and a koi fish river. What made this shrine a little different from the others I have visited was that it was enormous. The grounds were spread out and everything was supersized. I noticed in addition that there was excitement in the air and saw monks in white and purple walking around doing busy work. In addition, I saw some folks setting up stands, a stage, and what appeared to be a rope off area for some type of ritual that appeared to be a ritual that would involve the burning of a pile of ornately decorated pine tree branches all placed in a mound surrounded by ritual objects and implements of fire. My curiosity was triggered for sure however I was not going to be able to stay at this temple all day until dark. I needed to catch the train out of there to make it back to Haenosaki and it was only 11am. I proceeded to wander around the grounds of the temple when another striking awareness hit me upon my arrival at the back entrance to the temple. I became subtly clued in to the fact that in all of the places I am going, in most of my writings there seems to be a common thread of stairs, or steps, as some type of initiation or symbol that marks an entrance into and departure from. I seem to be seeking them out subconsciously before I am about to have some type of an experience. Sure enough, at the back entrance of the shrine, I was drawn to a steep set of stairs that led through a gate and onto a back road into the country. The back road was calling me along with a raven and some forest birds, so I proceeded to make my way down the steps, along the road, by a creek, along the backside of the temple. I enjoyed the peacefulness of this moment and proceeded for a while until I decided that I really didn’t know where this road led to and though it was continuing up the mountain, I had an urge to turn around, so I followed that urge and back I went down a bamboo and creek lined forest road, past a rusty shed, next to a traditional Japanese house with dragons on the peaks, through the entrance gate, and back up the stairs to the shrine grounds. It was on my way up the steep, long, stairs that I recalled that all of my excursions have included a climb up stone steps. Continuing to wander around the grounds, I began to feel like maybe it was time to make my way to the next destination in Usa as I planned on walking the 10km this time rather than getting a taxi. Aside, I wanted to have a different experience than continuing to wander around the grounds of the shrine. Upon arriving at the point where I had encountered the roped off ritual space, I had noticed that a small crowd with cameras had started to gather and now there were monks in yellow robes moving around, setting up a generator, and doing a mic test. I found it interesting that a mic test in Japan is still done by saying “test, test, test” rather than the Japanese equivalent. Either way, the generator started and I wondered if perhaps this burning ritual was going to happen in the day time as opposed to the night. I had passed several hours, it was 2pm already and so I decided to stay put. Found a nice spot up in the front where I had a good view and stood with the growing crowd of onlookers and participants. At about that moment, a light sprinkling rain started to fall from between the tall trees that were surrounding this forest shrine. Never minding the rain, especially a light drizzle, I noticed that everyone with cameras came prepared and began wrapping their cameras in plastic bags and all manners of protective gear. There were tripods, video cameras, hand helds, zoom lenses, and I started to feel that whatever was about to go down was a big deal. There was even an event designated videographer who was allowed in the inner ring and temple security. At once, the monks all disappeared down a long path for a few moments and the excitement grew. Most of the videographers stayed put, many of the onlookers followed them. Eventually, off in the distance a processional of monks, with horns, surrounded by mobs of people, were slowly making their way toward where all of us were standing. They were stopping and beating drums, then walking while tossing decorative cards out and people would scramble to pick up the decorative cards. It was quite the scene to behold from off in the distance. The processional continued up to the roped off area then diverted to another part of the grounds near the stage. I decided to follow this time and found a sacred dance taking place in front of another burning ritual. At this location two fire keeper monks lit two long bamboo sticks with dried branches on the end on fire and stood at the back of the line of monks at the front side of the stage. The monks proceeded to say prayers and bow while the sacred story dance happened on the stage behind the puja. I thought I recognized the puja they were engaging in as it sounded a lot like the Heart Sutra with the mantra gate gate paragate parasamgate Bodhi soha. The dance appeared to be a dance between a high priest and a masked, perhaps demon or god being, where perhaps the masked force, was being overcome and entrance into a liminal world was being granted with protection for the purpose of ritual. This is my personal observance and could be way off. After prayers were made at this location, the processional, including the fire keeper monks with the burning torches, began to make its way back to the roped off location. Upon arrival, a swordsmen with a blade, stood at the entrance and proceeded to say some things then took the sword and cut the entrance clean open with a long warrior like slice of his blade. The processional then proceeded into the roped off location and moved around in a clockwise manner while conches, drums, and horns played while the Heart Sutra continued to be recited. Now everyone became still and series of events took place. What appeared to be the high priest-ish monk took a bamboo stick with white whispy things and began to take it around to all four corners and do a series of movements at the audience. He then left the circle and I didn’t see him again for the remaining part of the ritual. Following, an archer came out with a bow and proceeded to shoot arrows from the within the roped off area into the audience in all four directions and each time the crowd of onlookers would scramble to catch the arrow that was shot, brave move I thought, they were real arrows. He then shot an arrow in the middle of the burn pile. Next came out some swordsmen and did the same movements with swords. Following, the fire keeper monks proceeded to do a series of movements of the fire torches around the pile, then crossed the flame in front while more sutras were read. I did not recognize these ones. At the end of this, they pulled the torches back, in a warrior stance with one knee bent and one foot lifted, then proceeded to shove the flaming torches into the base of the burn pile. Within moments, it started to smoke in the most ominous way. Smoke was billowing out from the open center hole at the top and from the base. A yellow robed monk was using another white whispy pole to direct the flames in all four directions, and then the smoke got so intense it engulfed everyone. I could barely see people standing next to me. It smelled fresh and nice as what was burning was fresh wood and debris from the forest. I recognized that again, it sounded like the Heart Sutra was being recited over and over again. The smoke continued to billow and pour and at one point looked like a volcano erupting. I noticed a face in the smoke, with puffy cheeks, and open mouth, it looked like it was exhaling and from that face appeared glimpses of bright orange, pink, and red fire until the entire pile engulfed in a huge fast moving bonfire that left me with flash burn on my face. The ritual continued to go on until the fire resumed to smoke at which point I became tuned back into the fact that it had actually started raining pretty hard and the temperature had significantly dropped. In a surprise trance like state, smelling like campfire, bonfire, with still burnt lips, and now a flash burnt face, I proceeded to make my way down from the temple, through the temple town, in effort to see if I could find any more excitement in Usa. The rain turned to snow, and I decided to get a taxi to my next destination. Bungo-Takada, a Japanese retro town that is stuck in the Showa Period and the 50’s, I’m not sure maybe it was the rain, but I wasn’t that thrilled with the little town called Showa-Machi where I ended up. Guess it was worth it to see it and say I have been there, but after the surprise fire puja, I’m not sure anything could compare. I have no idea what that event was for, or what I happened to walk into, but it did make my day worthwhile and exactly what I was unexpectedly looking for. Oddly enough, last week on my day off I went looking for that type of an experience and didn’t find it. Even better to have found it by surprise on one random day in Japan.
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