Okera festival (okera mairi)

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Okera festival (okera mairi)

***** Location: Japan
***** Season: New Year
***** Category: Observance

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Explanation

Kyoto, Yasaka Shrine, early morning of January 1

Okera mairi 白朮詣 (おけらまいり), をけらまゐり

People visit this shrine to get a bit of the sacred flame of okera, which is a medical herb. They catch the flame with a little rope (fuse cord), swinging the rope all the way to home. With this flame, the fire for the first meal of the family is lit. This herb is used to ward off evil forces and negative energy of the past year.

Okera is the herb Atractylis ovata. It is supposed to bring longevity.

Click HERE for more photos !

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Other kigo in this context

okera matsuri 白朮祭（おけらまつり）
okera fire, okera bi 白朮火（おけらび）
okera rope, okera fuse cord, okera nawa 白朮縄（おけらなわ）
auspicious rope, kichoo nawa 、吉兆縄（きっちょうなわ）

swinging the rope, hinawa furu　火縄振る

ceremony in Gion Gion kesurikake no shinji
..... 祗園削掛の神事（ぎおんけずりかけのしんじ）
..... kezurikake no okonai 削掛の行（けずりかけのおこない）

vendor or fuse cord ropes, hinawa uri 火縄売（ひなわうり）


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Flame a beacon for a New Year's wishes
"Okera-mairi" at Yasaka Shrine

The "Okera-mairi" annual event took place on the night of December 31 at Yasaka Shrine in Higashiyama Ward, Kyoto, and visitors prayed for health and happiness in the coming year. The precincts were crowded with worshipers who swung ropes lit from the sacred fire so the embers would not burn out until they were taken home.

"Okera" is a kind of medicinal herbs. It is believed that if an ember lit from burning Okera is offered to the household altar or used for cooking "Zooni," or soup with rice cakes and vegetables, on New Year's Day, the family will be blessed with sound health and peace over the year. Visitors carrying home the sacred flame are a picturesque symbol of the shrine's most popular event connecting New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

Once "Joya-sai," or New Year's Eve ritual, which started at 7:00 p.m., was finished, sacred fires were lit on three "Tooro" lanterns in the precincts. Visitors holding "Kitcho-nawa," or ropes made of bamboo fibers, in their hands kindled the tips of the ropes, then took them home carefully so the delicate embers would not burn out.

© Kyoto Shimbun 2006.12.31 News

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Atractylodes japonica
a kind of millet



© 牧野標本館, Siebold Collection

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plant kigo for late summer

okera no hana 蒼朮の花 (おけらのはな) okera flowers
..... ukera うけら
..... soojuu 蒼朮（そうじゅつ）


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Worldwide use


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Things found on the way


hinawa 火縄 fuse cords "fire rope"
. . . CLICK here for Photos !

At some shrines, there are "Hinawa" rituals to our day.

Hunters used it kept in a special container :

hizutsu 火筒
hinawa ire 火縄入れ

hinawa were used in Japan before the use of lighters made it easier to start a hearth fire.

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永の日の杖の先なる火縄哉
naga no hi no tsue no saki naru hinawa kana

in the long day
at my cane's tip...
a fuse cord

Kobayashi Issa
tr. David Lanoue



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HAIKU

白朮火の美しき闇見とれけり
okerabi no utsukushiki yami torekeri

walking through
the beautiful light
of the okera fire

http://www5a.biglobe.ne.jp/~HAIKU/pcbbshr/228766186469333.html

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白朮縄綯ふや朱のさす翁の手　　
okera nawa nau ya ake no sasu okina no te

painting red color
and twisting the okera rope -
hands of an old man　　　　　

Suzuki Miyako 鈴木みや子
http://www.ibukinet.jp/topix/topix27.htm

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Related words


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Festivals and Ceremonies of Japan

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