Kyoto holds its famous Gozan no Okuribi festival

"Landep News"

Every August, Kyoto holds its famous Gozan no Okuribi festival, burning giant mountainside bonfires to help the spirits of deceased family members return to the spirit world.

For this year’s event, organizers had panned to use wood from Iwate prefecture. However, irrational fear of radiation has forced them to cancel the plan:

The wood was supposed to come from the wrecked trees of Iwate’s famous Takata Matsubara pine forest. Hundreds of pieces of wood had been gathered and cut. Tsunami survivors wrote prayers on the pieces of wood, hoping that the burning of the wood at the festival would help carry their messages to family and friends who died in the disaster.

Realizing that some people might be concerned about the wood being contaminated with radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, tests were carried in July out on about 300 pieces of wood. No contamination was found. None.

Nevertheless, hysterical complaints kept flooding in from citizens who were afraid of radiation. According to the Sankei Shimbun, the city received messages that said things like, “WHAT WILL YOU DO WHEN CHILDREN EXPERIENCE AFTER-EFFECTS?!!!” and “THE WATER FROM LAKE BIWA WILL BECOME UNDRINKABLE!!!!”

In the face of such panic, the city decided to cancel its plan to use the wood.

As you can see from the video report, people in Iwate are taking photos of the prayers that have already been written on pieces of wood. They will send the images to Kyoto, where they will be copied onto “clean” wood from another area of Japan.

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