The Fox God-Fire Festival / Gojinka-sai / 御神火祭 (Patreon)

I mentioned this in the most recent episode of Uncanny Japan (Ep. 96 The Killing Stone). 

It's called the God-Fire Festival or Gojinka-sai / 御神火祭 in Japanese. It's held at the end of May in Tochigi Prefecture, Nasu where the now broken stone resides. (As for Nasu here's a link of fun things to do there.  Yurts! Tree houses!)

The festival is a cosplay events that starts around 15:00 with Kyubi Ichi (The Nine-Tailed Market) where you can buy lots of local delicacies as well as get your face made up like a fox. At 18:30 a storyteller tells the tale. Then there is music (shakuhachi flute, shamisen, singing).

From 19:10 the procession (everyone donned in white, wigs, and fox masks) make their way to the Killing Stone. There they will light a giant bonfire. There will taiko drumming, other instruments, singing. 

Here is a flyer from 2019. They then took two years off due to the pandemic, of course. But the event will be held again this year (May 29th).

Where...

.... the theme for the night isn't just foxes. It's Hyakki Yagyo / 百鬼夜行 !! The Night Parade of 100 Demons!! Everyone is encouraged to dress up like their favorite youkai, spirit, monster, or fox!! How incredibly fun will that be?  I want to go so bad. 

If you're in Japan or going to be and in the area and want to participate. Here's some information. The site is in Japanese, however. It looks like it's still going on as planned. 

Since it's kind of a long shot that any of us can attend. Here's a video of 2019.

https://youtu.be/ZRA3iF_CDRw 

XOXO,

t