Nozawa Onsen Fire Festival: the Dōsojin Matsuri

Dōsojin are folk deities traditionally placed at village boundaries and crossroads to keep harm out. In Nozawa Onsen they are shown as a male-and-female pair, and people pray to them for good marriages, children and the healthy growth of children. The Dōsojin Matsuri has been held for more than 300 years, is designated by the Japanese government as an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property, and is often called one of Japan's three great fire festivals.

It is run by the village men in their yakudoshi, the ages traditionally seen as unlucky. The groups turning 25 and 42 carry the main load, under the Nozawagumi Sōdai, the old residents' body that manages the village's communal forests, water and hot springs. The organisers are blunt about it: this is a religious rite, not an event.

The work starts months before January. In mid-September, five straight beech trees, about 18 metres long and 30 centimetres across, are chosen from the communal forest as the sacred trees (goshinboku). In mid-October the yakudoshi men fell them after prayers to the mountain deity.

13 January, Goshinboku Satobiki. Two of the trees are stored at the Hikage ski area. The day opens with a race down the Hikage slope between the 25- and 42-year-old groups, each hauling one tree. After that the trees are pulled by hand through the village for several hours, with shouts of encouragement and sake handed out along the way. In 2026 this started around 13:00 near Isemiya.

14–15 January, the shaden. On the morning of the 14th the men start building the shaden, the festival shrine, under a master carpenter. Work goes late into the night and resumes on the 15th, finishing around midday. It stands about seven metres high, with the sacred-tree pillars rising more than ten metres above it, and it is built without nails or wire. Because the work is dangerous, alcohol is banned once building starts.

The lanterns. Families who had a baby in the past year make a hatsu-tōrō, a lantern more than nine metres tall covered in handwritten wishes for the child. On the evening of the 15th they carry it through the village by torchlight, singing Dōsojin songs, and stand it beside the shaden.

The source fire (himoto) is carried to the ground and used to light a pile of brushwood about 30 metres from the shaden. From there villagers take torches and charge the shrine. The 42-year-olds sit on top of the shaden and the 25-year-olds defend it from below, beating out the flames.

The order is fixed. The Nozawagumi Sōdai make the first attempt, then the lantern families, then the village children, and only then the adults, when it gets properly intense. The battle lasts about an hour and a half, and both sides end up black with soot. It closes with tejime, a round of ceremonial hand-clapping. The men climb down, the fire is placed deliberately into the centre of the shaden, and once it is roaring the lanterns are fed into the flames one by one.

For safety, the fire ceremony takes place in a controlled area on a gentle, snow-covered slope that gets extremely crowded, and numbers are capped. In 2026 the Nozawagumi issued admission tickets only to village residents and to guests staying at accommodation in Nozawa Onsen village (foreign visitors included). Ask the place you are staying how it hands them out. For the 2026 festival the restrictions were announced in November and the ticket details from early December, so expect the 2027 rules on a similar timetable.

The 2026 rules for visitors were:

• Entry with an admission ticket only.
• No drinks, including alcohol, brought into the venue. No bottles or cans.
• Only villagers take part in the fire-lighting. Visitors watch.
• No drones near the festival ground. It is illegal under Japanese aviation law.
• All roads in the village are no-parking that night, with pedestrian controls in place.

The ceremonies on 13 and 14 January and during the day on the 15th are open to anyone, ticket or not.

The official pages publish no viewing map, and the space is limited. Follow the marshals and any rope lines, and remember the open ground between the brushwood fire and the shaden is where villagers run with torches. People at the front get the heat and the sparks. Personally I'd suggest staying further back up the slope, especially with children: you still see the lanterns and the battle, without the crush, and you keep a clear way out.

The footing is packed snow, in the dark, with a crowd moving around you. Use a phone torch or headlamp on the walk there and back, keep hold of your group, and agree a meeting point in the village before you go in.

The usual route from Tokyo is the Hokuriku Shinkansen to Iiyama (about 1 hour 50 minutes), then the Nozawa Onsen Liner bus (about 25 minutes, ¥600). The full options are on getting to Nozawa Onsen from Tokyo.

Do not plan on leaving after the fire. On last winter's timetable (2025–26) the last Liner left Nozawa Onsen at 19:35, before the battle even starts. The last bus up from Iiyama arrived at 21:45. The 2026–27 winter timetable had not been published when this was checked. Since entry needs a village stay anyway, personally I'd suggest arriving on the 14th to watch the shaden go up, and leaving on the 16th or later.

Dinner: the procession starts at about 19:00, so eat early. Expect restaurants to be busy with festival guests, so book a table, or pick somewhere quick from the Nozawa Onsen restaurant guide. The village map shows what is close to your lodge.

Onsen: after hours in the cold, a soak is the obvious next move. The thirteen free village baths are run by locals; wash before you get in, and they may be busier than usual that night.

The next morning: the shaden usually smoulders until morning. On the 16th, from dawn to dusk, villagers bring mochi and wire grills to toast over the embers at the festival ground; eating it is said to keep colds away for a year. Bring your own mochi, grill, long chopsticks, soy sauce and a plate if you want to join in. Then go skiing: see the mountain guide for where to start, and ski hire if you need gear.