Dontosai festival 🔥🎉🇯🇵 14 Jan 2022 •This traditional event is held at shrines where worshippers bring their New Year’s decorations to be burned in a large bonfire and pray for good health, good fortune and the well-being of their families. •The largest of these festivals is held at the Osaki Hachiman Shrine, famous for its hadakamairi (men dressed only in loincloths marching to the shrine).

The Matsutaki Festival of this shrine has a history of 300 years and is the largest new year countdown in the whole of Japan. It is an event held to burn offerings of new year's decorations and old amulets etc. and is also known as ”Sagicho” generally in other areas or ”Dondoyaki” due to the strength of the fire. On the night of Jan 14, New Year's pine decoration and Shinto ropes etc. gathered at one corner of the grounds from the surrounding country are lighted up in flames by a ”imibi” around sunset. As a ”gojinka” to see off the gods who visited each household during the new year, this fire is said to purify the minds and bodies of those who come into contact with it and to keep their families safe and healthy for the year. A custom called ”hadakamairi” where people visit the shrine aiming for the ”gojinka” naked in winter used to be practiced as well. Already established by the middle of the Edo Period, this practice is said to have been started by sake brewers who visited the shrine to pray for the sake to be brewed safely as they entered into preparations in the intense cold. Even now, thousands of pilgrims wearing a white towel around their heads and a white cloth around their waists, holding a piece of ”fukumigami” paper in their mouths to refrain from small talk and with their left hand holding a paper lantern and their right hand holding a bell come to pay homage from all over the city, becoming a well-known seasonal event of Sendai, the City of Trees.

Osaki hachimangu shrine is decorated with beautiful lanterns Various stalls are open all night! Positive and happy vibes all around!

Tends to get overcrowded for this festival. So take care of parking. Parking is available in the shrine premises though. Parking at paid parking facilities is recommended. Its 10-15 min drive from Sendai station. Happy visit 🍎🙏