Firewood from trees felled by tsunami used for Obon festival

Submitted by Asahi Shimbun on
Item Description

RIKUZEN-TAKATA, Iwate Prefecture--A ceremonial fire was lit Aug. 8, as part of the Obon festival in this northern Japanese city, one of the hardest hit by the Great East Japan Earthquake.

Translation Approval
Off
Media Type
Layer Type
Archive
Asahi Asia & Japan Watch
Geolocation
39.00898, 141.629434
Latitude
39.00898
Longitude
141.629434
Location
39.00898,141.629434
Media Creator Username
Asahi Asia & Japan Watch
Media Creator Realname
Asahi Asia & Japan Watch
Language
English
Media Date Create
Retweet
Off
English Title
Firewood from trees felled by tsunami used for Obon festival
English Description

RIKUZEN-TAKATA, Iwate Prefecture--A ceremonial fire was lit Aug. 8, as part of the Obon festival in this northern Japanese city, one of the hardest hit by the Great East Japan Earthquake.

The firewood came from pine trees in the Takata-Matsubara scenic area that were knocked down by the March 11 tsunami.

The firewood was initially scheduled to be burned in the Daimonji Gozan Okuribi, the traditional Obon event in Kyoto in which huge sacred bonfires are lit.

However, rumors of radiation contamination led to the plan being canceled. The cancellation prompted more than 300 e-mails and angry phone calls to the government of Kyoto criticizing the decision.

old_tags_text
a:4:{i:0;s:27:"Great East Japan Earthquake";i:1;s:10:"pine trees";i:2;s:4:"Obon";i:3;s:14:"Rikuzen-Takata";}
old_attributes_text
a:0:{}
Flagged for Internet Archive
Off
URI
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/quake_tsunami/AJ201108095694
Thumbnail URL
https://s3.amazonaws.com/jda-files/AJ201108095729.jpg