Jissoji Temple / Sumi-tsuke Festival
Main Image Yaki Kannon (two wooden Kannon images) Category Bosatsu (Bodhisattva)
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DescriptionTwo wooden Kannon images are used in the roughly 400-year-old Yaki Kannon New Year ritual of Yahaba’s Jonai district. Cedar Kannon figures are burned among piled cedar branches, and participants rub the resulting charcoal on one another’s faces and hands while praying for protection from fire, health, and a good harvest. The rite originated as a New Year observance for Senju Kannon at Jissoji Kannon Hall on the mountainside and is now held at Yahaba Municipal Campground. It is an exceptionally rare folk-Buddhist event in which the images themselves are placed in the fire and even their charcoal becomes part of the devotional practice.
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