{"id":2400,"date":"2014-12-23T08:14:37","date_gmt":"2014-12-22T23:14:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kodo.or.jp\/blog_en\/?p=2400"},"modified":"2014-12-23T08:14:37","modified_gmt":"2014-12-22T23:14:37","slug":"fire-walking-event-at-fukugonji-temple-by-eri-uchida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/blog_en\/posts-by-kodo-members\/20141223_2400.html","title":{"rendered":"“Fire-Walking Event at Fukugonji Temple” by Eri Uchida"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Dec. 14 Performance at Fire-Walking Event at Fukugonji Temple<\/h2>\n

\"Photo:<\/a><\/p>\n

We performed\u00a0at this year’s Fire-Walking Event at Fukugonji Temple in Komaki, Aichi. Unfortunately, there\u00a0was bad weather on the day of the performance, but the venue was\u00a0lively from early on in the morning with performances by a variety of groups and stalls selling tasty fare.
\nThis is the second time for Kodo to perform at\u00a0this event, following on from last year. Before the event started, the temple priests briefed us on the origins of the ritual. I felt so honored to be able to perform at\u00a0their event, which has been held for centuries. I was determined to do my best.<\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/a><\/p>\n

As evening drew nearer, the temperature went down steadily. A bell was sounded at 5 o\u2019clock and we\u00a0started our performance right there in\u00a0the\u00a0bell tower. They kept ringing the bell during our performance. The sound of our taiko echoed out\u00a0nicely far and wide\u2013\u00a0perhaps that is because the tower was built so that the sound of the bell could be heard at every corner of the village?
\nAfter that, we performed\u00a0on the main stage right\u00a0in front of the spot where the fire-walking ritual took place. It was colder than I had expected… so cold that any of\u00a0our\u00a0skin not covered by clothing hurt intensely. Surprisingly, that painful chill\u00a0actually cheered us on.<\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/a><\/p>\n

For O-daiko<\/span>, Kenta Nakagome was playing on the front of the big drum\u00a0and it looked like his back was giving\u00a0off steam. You could tell from\u00a0Yuta Sumiyoshi’s drumming on the back and Tetsumi Hanaoka\u2019s chappa<\/span> (cymbal) playing that they were getting into the spirit of it, too.
\nWe started to play Yatai-bayashi<\/span> as the fire was set alight. I think\u00a0our performance sounded\u00a0a little bit different in front of the firey blaze and smoke.<\/p>\n

However, no matter how much heart we put into the performance, it was freezing cold! I did not feel cold during our performances, but I seemed to be shivering so much, and that caused a lot of muscle pain deep inside my body which hit me the next day.<\/p>\n

This ritual tells of the horror of all-consuming fire, but at the same time, I learned the horror of the opposite: coldness. The power of nature is beyond our own. This experience made me reflect on the way I spend my time in winter:\u00a0I realize that if\u00a0you stay wrapped up too warm in winter, you become a weaker\u00a0human being!<\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/p>\n

The “School Workshop Performance Tour” members are all doing well!<\/p>\n

\"eri_s\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dec. 14 Performance at Fire-Walking Event at Fukugonji Temple We performed\u00a0at this year’s Fire-Walking Event at Fukugonji Temple in Komaki, Aichi. Unfortunately, there\u00a0was bad weather on the day of the performance, but the venue was\u00a0lively from early on in the morning with performances by a variety of groups and stalls selling tasty fare. This is the second time for Kodo to perform at\u00a0this event, following on from last year. Before the event started, the temple priests briefed us on the origins of the ritual. I felt so honored to be able to perform at\u00a0their event, which has been held for centuries. I was determined to do my best. As evening … \u25b6\u7d9a\u304d\u3092\u8aad\u3080<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[31,29,43,36,66],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/blog_en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2400"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/blog_en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/blog_en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/blog_en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/blog_en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2400"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/blog_en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2438,"href":"http:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/blog_en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2400\/revisions\/2438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/blog_en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/blog_en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kodo.or.jp\/blog_en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}