Tanukidani-san Fudo-in Autumn Festival (Otsunagari Prayer)

Held every 3 November from 11:00 at Tanukidani-san Fudo-in, a temple on the hillside above Ichijoji. Once a year, a cloth is tied to the sword held in the right hand of Fudo Myoo, the deity enshrined deep inside the main hall, and drawn all the way down to the saito-goma fire altar below, where worshippers touch it as they pray. This is the Otsunagari prayer. The same day marks the Shugen-sai, commemorating the temple's founding, when yamabushi mountain ascetics light a great outdoor fire ritual; hand them a prayer stick during the service and it goes straight into the flames. A good choice if you want to see a yamabushi fire ritual up close.

Fudo Myoo (Acala) is the fierce, sword-bearing guardian of Shingon Buddhism, and Tanukidani-san is a mountain temple of yamabushi ascetics devoted to him. Once a year on 3 November, a cloth is tied to the sword in the right hand of the Fudo statue deep inside the main hall and stretched down to the outdoor fire altar, so that worshippers can touch it and be joined to the deity by a single line, which is what otsunagari means. On the same day the temple's yamabushi, in their mountain-ascetic dress, perform the saito goma, a large outdoor fire ritual commemorating the temple's founding. Visitors can buy a gomagi prayer stick (800 yen), write a wish on it and hand it to a yamabushi during the service to be burned in the fire.