Fire-grilled - Ohitaki

Japanese: 御火焼き - おひたき

Also written as Onitaki. A fire festival held in November (old November). It was popular mainly in Kyoto. It was an event where garden fires were lit at the Imperial Court, nobles, shrines, private homes, and other places, starting with Kamo Myojin, the guardian deity of Chion-in Temple, on the first day of the month and lasting almost every day. Onitaki is usually held from evening to night, with pine firewood stacked in a crisscross pattern and bamboo grass erected in the center. After sacred offerings are made to the fire and kagura and prayers are performed, the newly lit purified fire is transferred to the bamboo grass. Sacred sake is poured over the blaze and the event ends with three bursts of firecrackers.

Source: Heibonsha World Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition Information

Japanese:

御火焚きとも書く。霜月(旧11月)に行われた火祭。京都を中心に盛んに行われた。宮中をはじめ公卿，神社，民家などで庭火を焚く行事で，朔日（ついたち）の知恩院鎮守賀茂明神からはじまってほとんど連日にわたった。御火焼きは，夕方から夜にかけて行うことを常とし，松薪を井桁に組み上げ中央にササを立て，これに神饌を供え神楽や祝詞を奏してのち，新たにおこした浄火をササに移す。燃えあがったところへ神酒をかけて，爆竹を3度ならして終わった。

出典　株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典第２版について　情報

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