Agon Shu’s Hoshi Matsuri (The Fire Rites Festival)
It is held on the grounds of Agon Shu Sohonden Main Temple in Kyoto on February 11 at 7:30 a.m. every year.
Shinto-Buddhist Dai-Saito Goma Ceremony (Shinto-Buddhist Sacred Fire Rites)
The formal name of Agon Shu’s Hoshi Matsuri is called the Fire Rites Festival − Agon Shu’s Hoshi Matsuri/ Shinto-Buddhist Dai-Saito Goma Ceremony (Shinto-Buddhist Sacred Fire Rites). It is held on February 11 each year on the grounds of the Main Temple located in Kitakazan-omine, Yamashina-ku, Kyoto, which is the biggest event of Agon Shu. The Hoshi Matsuri has been held for the past 30 years or so and more than half a million worshippers participate in this event. It is well known as a winter event of Kyoto.
Shinto-Buddhist Fire Rites Festival Carried Out by Secret Process
The great spiritual leader Kiriyama Kancho conducts the Hoshi Matsuri or the Fire Rites Festival through the secret process of Shinto and Buddhist realms mastered through his many years of training. There are two Goma-dan or giant sacred wooden pyres on the sacred ground. Hosho Goma, which changes one’s luck for the better and brings treasures of life, is lit at Shinkai-dan or Shinto Realm and Kongokai-dan or Diamond Realm of a giant sacred wooden pyre. Gedatsu-kuyo Goma, which venerates ancestors to bring good luck, is lit at the Bukkai-dan or Buddhist Realm and Taizo-dan or the Womb-store Realm of the other giant sacred wooden pyre.
A Rare Opportunity to Be Blessed with Great Power at the Hoshi Matsuri
Each of us has a “birth star,” and the destiny and fortunes of each person are understood to be linked with this star. The Hoshi Matsuri is a Buddhist festival celebrating one’s birth star and the star governing one’s destiny for the year. It also prays for an individual’s happiness throughout the year, world peace and prosperity. The ceremony is conducted through a secret process of esoteric Buddhism. The Hoshi Matsuri combines the great virtues of Shinto and Buddhist realms and Shinsei Busshari or authentic relics of the Buddha, bringing the power of liberation and equanimity and giving its worshippers and participants a rare opportunity to be blessed with extraordinary power. Kiriyama Kancho conducts the special rites and chants nine secret words repeatedly throughout the day. The festival starts at 7:30 in the morning and lasts until around 4:00 in the afternoon. The sacred fires rise to tens of meters in length to the sky from both of the giant pyres and continue to burn throughout the day. Kiriyama Kancho and approximately 18,000 Agon Shu members and practitioners conduct the Hoshi Matsuri.
Rokuju Seishuku Shugoshinsho (The Statues of Sixty Zodiacal Symbols)
Special permission was granted to Agon Shu by White Cloud Temple (Baiyunguan) in Beijing, China to reproduce models of the famous secret statues of Sixty Zodiacal Symbols and to erect an altar to these deities. They are displayed at the Hoshi Matsuri. They represent guardian deities of all people. In Chinese and Japanese traditions there is a sixty-year cycle, with each year corresponding to a particular deity. Each person has a deity according to the year of his or her birth. These guardian deities have been worshipped in Taoism and the particular sacred statues seen in this temporary shrine had never previously been allowed to be reproduced outside the White Cloud Temple. Only Agon Shu has been granted permission to reproduce these statues for public veneration.
Agon Shu Hashiri Daikokuten − Special Blessing for bringing good luck and fortune
Agon Shu’s Daikokuten or god of wealth is a Running Daikokuten that runs around bringing fortune and good luck to people. He is a god of good luck, bringing prosperous business, financial stability and job advancement. You may receive a special blessing from a Yamabushi of this Hashiri Daikokuten at the Hoshi Matsuri site.