On the evening of January 15th, in the snow of the northern Nagano mountains, a large wooden structure built by the young men of Nozawa Onsen Village is set on fire. The men aged twenty-five and forty-two — the traditionally unlucky years — serve as guardians of the structure against the crowd that tries to light it before the ceremony reaches its proper moment. The pushing and shouting between guardians and crowd is ritualized but physical. The Dosojin festival is a Koshogatsu observance — part of the cluster of rituals that mark the traditional lunar new year, the period after January 15th when spring planting begins to be anticipated. The fire drives away misfortune for the village's families. The unlucky-aged men who protect the structure and then surrender it to the flames are doing something specific: processing their unlucky years through ritual exposure rather than avoidance. Nozawa Onsen is a ski village, and most winter visitors come for the slopes. The January 15th festival gives the village a second reason to visit in winter — the combination of the ceremony, the subsequent onsen soak, and the quality of the winter landscape in this part of Nagano is specific and complete.