Every second Sunday of February each year, a mountain burning event will be held at Mt. Omuro. According to the official site, “the dead grasses on the mountain-sides are burned to help new buds come out in time for spring.
Its a spectacle on Ito’s calender of tourist events.” The burning was said to be done as a means of maintenance of the mountain, as well as to allow high quality kaya grass to be harvested.

Staff were on standby.

Firefighters were also on standby in case something went wrong.

As the clock struck twelve, a taiko performance commenced.

The tall kaya grass were set on fire all around the mountain.

The heat wave reached spectators. The smoke rose high and blocked out the sun partially.

The fire didn’t grow very strong at all, and it died down within 10 minutes. Perhaps the wind condition wasn’t good that day.

At the end, a good portion of the wild grass were left untouched. Even the organiser said on their Facebook page that with that amount, they could have gone with a second round of burning.

As short as it was, this concludes the report.

By Desheng.

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