Photo/Illutration Spectators view the “Funagata” bonfire against the backdrop of the character “dai,” which was fully lit for the first time in three years, in Kyoto on Aug. 16. (Kenta Sujino)

KYOTO--For the first time in three years, five mountainsides were fully lit up with giant bonfires forming kanji and other images in a traditional summer festival here on Aug. 16.

Smaller bonfires were displayed in 2020 and 2021 during the Gozan no Okuribi festival to avoid crowds due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

This year, five mountainsides surrounding this ancient capital had a series of bonfires lit on them during the final day of the Bon holiday season, when Japanese remember their ancestors.

The bonfires are a gesture to send off spirits of the deceased back to the spiritual world after they have visited their former homes.

This year's festival was delayed several minutes due to the weather.

At 8:10 p.m., the character “dai,” which represents the festival’s best-known character “Daimonji,” could be seen illuminated on the hillside of Mount Nyoigatake in Sankyo Ward in the eastern part of the city, becoming the first series of bonfires of the night.

Bonfires were ignited at all 75 spots on the mountainsides to form the kanji.

The sites where fires could be ignited had been reduced to six to avoid close contact among those lighting the fires for the past two years, the federation of Gozan no Okuribi, a group that organizes the festival, said.

Four other mountainsides were lit from east to west following the Daimonji.

The characters for “Myoho” (Buddha’s mastery teachings), a depiction of a boat called “Funagata,” another “dai” character known as “Hidari Daimonji,” and a depiction of a torii shrine gate called “Torii-gata” also appeared, just as in pre-pandemic times.

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