In Tokyo, monks walk across fire—and you can join them

In Japan, even the most mundane elements of life are sacred. The guardian deity of toilets is revered in Myotokuji Temple in Izu. Tokyo’s Mikami Shrine welcomes balding men in their droves, seeking to divinely revitalise their hairlines. There are shrines to lost cats, broken pottery and the curing of warts.

So, I’m not surprised to find Takao-san Yakuo-in, a Buddhist temple on the western edge of Tokyo, doesn’t have a car park but a Car Purification Bay, where motorists bring their wheels to be blessed. It’s not hard to see why people’s minds turn so easily to the sublime here. Macaques chatter in the maples on the slopes of Mount Takao, which rears up behind the temple hall. The smell of cypresses mingles with the agarwood rising from the drums smouldering in the courtyard. Cherry blossom, stirred from its branches by a warm breeze, falls to the tarmac like soft-pink snow.

In the centre of the courtyard is a huge bonfire made up of coniferous branches. Leaning against it are thousands of ema — wooden prayer plaques inscribed with kanji characters. There’s a festival atmosphere here; early birds have laid out picnics beside the railings, and food stalls emanate the scraping of spatulas flipping okonomiyaki pancakes.

The clattering of bells begins to rise from inside the temple. Out come two dozen conch shell-blowing monks, their white robes wrapped at the waist with deer pelts. The monks of Takao-san Yakuo-in belong to Shugendo, a sect of esoteric Buddhism that incorporates elements of mountain worship and Shinto, Japan’s indigenous religion. They’re renowned for their extreme practices, which include meditating in waterfalls, hanging from cliffs by their ankles, and — as is the purpose of today’s Hiwatari-sai firewalking festival — walking on hot coals.

Festivals have long fascinated me — so much that I’ve written a book, Fiesta, all about them as expressions of culture. They showcase, in their diverse ways, the extremes of human behaviour. I find I’m the most intrigued when customs feel difficult to understand — never more so than at events like this, when people embrace pain.

The monks line up around the bonfire, pounding drums with mallets. An elderly, purple-robed man is helped, shuffling, into the arena. Next, a team of archers fires arrows towards the four corners of the arena. One of them overshoots and almost hits the crowd, eliciting gasps followed by laughter.

This is a visceral side of Japanese religion that can be experienced at Shugendo ceremonies all over the country. At Kinpusenji Temple in Yoshino, you can join would-be monks in a Shugendo workshop, trekking into the mountains as an act of ascetic meditation. They believe their rituals bind them closer to nature and imbue them with power. For the traveller, these practices offer a wild counterpoint to the serene temple-tramping normally associated with Japan — which many visit with preconceptions, only to be confounded.

Finally, it’s time for the bonfire to be lit. A monk ladles purifying water onto the branches, before four others approach holding torches, which they push into the pile. Thick smoke begins to pour from the middle of the bonfire as flames hiss from its edges, eventually swallowing all in a wall of fire. Monks chant, staring in a trance; others throw wooden buckets of water, not to extinguish the oil-fuelled flames, but to spread them. My face prickles with heat.

The monks begin raking the coals into an even bed using long, hooked bamboo poles. Only now, finally, can the firewalking begin. The elderly monk who I’d seen shuffling into the arena goes first, traipsing barefoot with sudden uprightness, as if the heat has soothed the aching of his joints. More follow, some flapping in a panic, others proceeding calmly — a lifetime of meditation having trained their minds to overcome physical suffering.

I’m happy to watch for now. But Shugendo is open to all — and, as the wind rustles the maples on the paths behind the temple, it’s hard to resist the feeling that there’s something sacred taking place here.