Omizutori
City : Nara
Omizutori (お水取り), Water Drawing Festival, is the annual festival held by Todaiji temple （東大寺）.It dates back to AD752 and never stopped down to this year . The ceremony is the confession by the eleven priests to the kannon statue at the hall of Nigatsu-do (二月堂) in Todaiji temple. It lasts two weeks from March 1 which is hard time for the priests and some prayer part of the ritual is not exposed to visitors. Anyway, they pray for people's well-being and the world piece.
For us spectator, the scene of the big torch circling the hall is the highlight. They are formally the lights leading priests to the hall, but a flame in the night sky is just a spectacle by being looked up from the square in front of the hall. Also it is said that sparks of the torches bless the people with good health, so every one try to be in the shower of sparks and pick up ashes.
2010 Schedule of the torch burning :
March 1-11 and 13 : Ten torches burn for 20 minutes from 7 pm.
March 12 : Eleven torches burn for 45 minutes from 7:30 pm.
March 14 : Ten torches burn for 5 minutes from 6:30 pm.
During this period, large number of people gather at the limited place in front of the Nigatsudo hall. If you arrive there at the torch burning time, you could only see them from a far distant. So you should be there one or two hours before it starts. It's so cold at night and you will have to stand in the crowd for a long time. Be sure to prepare for that environment. On March 12, torches are bigger than other days and March 14 is the last day, so these two days, they say, will be too crowded to access to the hall.
Access :
Nigatsudo hall is a part of Todaiji temple's site which is famous for the great Buddha statue. From the nearest station, Nara on the Kintetsu Railway line, you can follow people walking the same way to the temple.
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