Traditional Event over 380 years.

Japanese

Hyakuhatto a traditional event has been done more than 380 years in Uonuma city

The great fire event
108 lightts on the mountain ridge will be held on March 5th in 2023.

Please visit Oritate Onsen and enjoy great fire event in Uonuma city.

雪に埋もれてた鳥居を掘り出したところ

Torii covered by snow was dug out

1st step is to dig out Torii which is located at the foot of a Mountain.

Pray for huge harvest

Prior to the work, the staffs worship at in front of Torii Shinto shrine .

An old style of a straw coat.

Old people put on straw coat when they carry straw bundles on their back.

Carrying straw bundles

Staffs carry a lot of straw bundles to the mountain ridge.

Putting straw bundles on the mountain ridge.

A lot of straw bundles are put on each point.

HYAKUHATTO Fire Festival in Oritate area

What is HYAKUHATTO

Make a small snow shrine

The deep snow more than 2m high make us impossible to dig out the shrine from the fallen snow. Instead of that, we make a small snow shrine and pray to God.

Carrying straw bundles to the mountain ridge

On the Hyakuhatto day, the people in charge of Hyakuhatto Festival carry many straw bundles to the mountain ridge. As this work is very hard, it has been done by young men in this area.

Fire on the straw bundles

Praying for much harvest, the people in charge fires on the straw bundles at the ridge of the mountain. A fantastic lights are lighting up the mountain.

HYAKUHATTO Snow Festival is held at the foot of the Mountain

Many kinds of performances are held on the snow stage. Local staffs provide Mochi pounded rice-cake, Soba Japanese nudle and Tonjilu a sort of pork soup. All of the food is served to the visitors with free of charge. The pounded rice-cake made by 6 persons is very popular among them. As final event, fireworks are set off and light up the festival place.

Hyakuhatto event has been carried out in March for the wish of good harvest and started from mid-Edo period more than 350 years before.
Many straw bundles are carried from foot of mountain to the top of the mountain. Those bundles are set along the mountain ridge and set fire up at night.
Today, it is harder and harder to perform this event because of two reasons.

One is less of young men.
It is hard work to carry many straw bundles from foot of mountain to the top. The work has been done by young men from the past but today, few young men remain in local area which cases lack of human power.

The other one isinsufficient straw bundles.
A harvest of rice today is mainly done by machines. Ear of rice plants are taken only and other part, that is, straw are returened to rice paddy on the spot. To remain the straw bundles are needed exstra human power but limited such power.

It is not sure until when we can keep on but we are trying to go on.