At the end of February, people walk barefoot over fire.

Tomiai, in the south of Kumamoto City. The temple's proper name is Ganeisan Chojuji, but everyone calls it Kihara Fudoson. It is counted among the three great Fudo temples of Japan, alongside Naritasan and Meguro - a fact that seems oddly little known outside Kyushu.

The spring festival falls on the twenty-eighth of February, every year without variation. Prayer sticks are burned to the chanting of sutras; when they have burned down, the mountain ascetics cross the glowing embers on bare feet, still chanting. Then bamboo grass is dipped in boiling water and poured over the head, and finally a practitioner sits down inside the cauldron itself. These are the austerities, performed in order.

After the ascetics have crossed, ordinary visitors may walk the embers too. Do it, they say, and the year will pass without illness.

A rain-making legend clings to the place, and it is also called the Water-drawing Fudo. A temple of fire that is also a temple of water. Late February is still cold here - only this one day carries the name of spring.