A winter snowstorm was blowing as I was waiting at the Shin Yamaguchi bus station to finish my 10 hour journey across the mountains to Hagi, my homestay on the west coast of Japan. During the previous three days, 5-7 February 2026, I had joined Heartland Japan’s Shingu Oto Matsuri tour, Sacred Flames of Kumano.
As the bus carefully climbed its way up the road, and I sat in its warmth, I sent this email to Heartland Japan:
Yukiko san... and everyone at Heartland Japan
I am now on the last bus leg of the journey home from Shingu across the mountains to Hagi ... from flaming torchlight to the driving snow ❄️
I can’t though arrive back in Hagi without saying ... ‘what an incredible 3 days of the Oto Matsuri tour!’
Those experiences with a wonderful group of people have humbled me ... and also filled me full of joy...
Thank you for your beautiful care, Nobuko san and Miki san and Tim san...
take great care
Paul
I am aged 74, from the UK, and, as I write, am in the fourth of my six months stay in Japan. My family had been pleased and excited that I had taken myself to Japan where my plan was – ‘to have no plan’! Instead, I would as far as possible remain still and enjoy Japan in its ordinary day to day. Beautiful experiences then raced in, created by the family I am living with, including their introduction to Heartland Japan.
I thought I would talk about the joy of what I saw and felt in the Sacred Flames of Kumano Tour by considering some of what I said to my children and to Heartland Japan in my messages to them as it happened….
This way there is a ‘real time’ story to share…the messages here may not have the photos …but I hope they reveal the strength, clarity and joy given to me from this trip into Shingu’s Oto Matsuri… into what surely is a place where, at least in part, Japan’s heart resides…
What I saw, firstly and most respectfully, was the wonderful planning. Each moment was made as memorable as it was because of the intricate detail in the organisation of the tour. Consequently, our understanding of and personal insights about the Oto Matsuri and its centuries old Shinto and local community culture were made powerfully visible.
As I walked towards the group at the train station meeting point there was an immediate happiness – a happy energy that just grew and grew as we became immersed in the sacred nature of Shinto and its ancient folklore. That happiness came from the two organisers with that first beautifully personal welcome.
I said to my children that evening (we have a ‘Dad in Japan’ WhatsApp group!)
Have had the first day of the guided trip at Shingu .. made rope for the ‘waraji’ woven rice straw sandals, were given our own, then wore them as we climbed to the Kamikura Shrine to understand a little better what tomorrow’s 2000 men in pure white clothing running down the Shrine’s steep steps with their flaming torches is all about 🌻 one of the group and I made our rope together., this is our straw sandals and wearing the white tabi socks 😇
Replies:
Daughter 1 - Those rope footwear look terrible...let us know how your feet are xx
Daughter 2 – No pain no spiritual enlightenment!
A second message that day described our meal
This has been an amazingly wonderful day 🙏 just back at the hotel getting on 10.30pm .. this evening, we had a meal which was to die for! I do love Japanese food .. and this meal was as good as it gets … serious fine dining!…the group is super friendly and fun ..
I should say here that everything within this tour expressed sincere respect for the Oto Matsuri, its Shinto practices and its Shingu community. Not once did I feel that I was looking in and clicking an excited phone’s camera. My own uncertainties I learned to set aside in the conversations with the priests, their invitation to be within the shrines and to share their traditions – to be with and not outwith.
Only the most careful planning by Heartland Japan made this at all possible. That and the beautiful spirit and knowledge of our guide Tim san, himself immersed in the Oto Matsuri community and one of its leaders.
Tim san led the men at the beach as they prepared for their sacred journey across the three shrines that evening. A Shinto priest offered prayer as the men disrobed, mostly other than a white fundoshi cloth wrapped around the waist and thighs, immersing themselves in the sea as a purification ritual. Doing so to be properly fit and ready within themselves for the torchlit observation of the Shinto deities to come.
It was humbling to be present as these men observed and maintained their religious traditions – young sons too, some still hardly 2 or 3 years old.
That afternoon we had lunch and conversation with two Yamabushi mountain priests. We learned that the Yamabushi shugendo practice adopts features of Shinto and Buddhism with ancient nature worship in the surrounding mountains of Kumano. Their practice integrated with family life and informed their otherwise occupations – one a physical therapist.
We then each inscribed, in ink and with an ink paintbrush, our wish to take to the deities – these wishes on a torch to be carried that evening by Tim san. This shared moment of reflection and connection within the group was very moving – my wish, the kanji for ‘family’ 家族
That same evening the 2000 men carried their torches to the three Shrines, running at the last, we learned, as a ‘divine light’, down the steps of the Kumano Kamikura Shrine.
This is part of my later message to my children:
…those flaming torches … we weren’t allowed within the running path so this video from a distance away … but you can hear the runners roar and the conch shells blow to open the gates to release the run!!
Daughter 2 - Your Japanese must be amazing dad to have been able to build those relationships and understand the guide sufficiently!
Me - Ahh! Most of the group, not just the organisers, are involved with tourism .. some also guides informing themselves …often fluent English and Japanese were both going on ..
Away from the flaming dragon the days before and after were deeply integrated into the Shinto practices .. so felt like going back hundreds of years .. with their priests and rituals .. As the oldest I represented the group at our shrine devotion .. the Kumano Hayatama Taisha grand shrine ..1000 years since first established and one of the most important in Japan .. had dinner with two mountain priests .. who integrated ancient nature worship into Buddhism and Shinto .. and who use the conch shells still for contact in the mountains 🇯🇵!
On the morning of the third day, we returned to the steps of the Kamikura Shrine. We joined in with clearing the steps of the straw and wood debris from the Oto Matsuri run. This had the most deeply significant effect on not just me, but on the group too. The continuation of being within the Oto Matsuri, being part of, made us feel ‘lighter’ was the word we used– an enlightened happiness shared.
To Heartland Japan the day after returning to Hagi:
Your carefully detailed planning of the tour was perfect!
I remain today still in the pulse of the Shingu Oto Matsuri tour … I cannot yet leave the power of those sacred traditions and the physical rhythms arising over those few days...I can still feel the warmth in the welcome from the people and the community we met with...
it will be some days yet before I can know what to do with myself in an ordinary day! you truly have given me the heart of Japan ….
▼Oto Matsuri Tour
If you are considering joining in the coming years,we invite you to explore the full tour details below.
Sacred Flames of Kumano
▼Related Article
We invite you to read an article by our local guide, Tim, to learn more about the Oto Matsuri.
Into the Depths of World Heritage Kumano. Local Guide Tim Detmer Unravels the “Oto Matsuri” and 1400 Years of Fire’s Memory