Word 098
Mount Wakakusa, lying east of Nara Park, has a distinctive silhouette formed by three overlapping grassy hills. Covered entirely in grass with no trees to block the view, nothing obstructs the eye from its base to its summit.
Yet this open view has not been preserved by nature alone. Every January, the entire mountain is set ablaze in a tradition known as Yamayaki. It is said that people once lit fires however they pleased, out of a folk belief tied to a legend surrounding Uguisu-zuka Tomb on the mountain — a fear that misfortune would follow if the mountain were not burned within the month of January.
In time, Todai-ji Temple, Kofuku-ji Temple, and the local magistrate's office came together to establish a safe way of burning the mountain. Today, roughly 300 members of the Nara City fire brigade carry torches lit from a great bonfire, forming a line as they bring the flames up the mountainside.
Everyone thinks, "I want freedom, I want to be free."
But "freedom" has another face.
Yes — it is "responsibility."
Only those who become aware of that "responsibility," and who make it truly their own even while feeling nearly crushed beneath it,
come to understand true "freedom,"
and are able to fully savor true "freedom."
This January, once again, the night sky will turn amber, and Mount Wakakusa will be wrapped in flame within a single night. By dawn, only the scent of ash will linger over the slopes — but as spring draws near, fresh grass will cover the mountainside once more, and the same open silhouette will return as if nothing had happened. And once again, the line of firefighters carrying their torches will quietly make its way up the mountain.