It’s mid-October, and some residual warmth still lingers on my skin. In Yase, located on the foothills of Mount Hiei to the north of central Kyoto, the air is cool. Nestled between mountains, the nights are so dark that it can be hard to see your feet in front of you. Maybe my eyes have given up trying, for my ears prick up and I can constantly hear the sound of water coming from afar.

Yase is located on what is known as Saba Kaido—literally “Mackerel Highway”, this was a network of trading routes where fish and other seafood was transported from Obama to Kyoto. Now, every year a festival called Yase Shamenchi Odori is held in October on the day before the Sports Day national holiday. During the Edo Period, there were land disputes between Mount Hiei and Yase village, but these were quelled by Akimoto Takatomo, an elder from the shogunate who saw over Tajimanokuni. It was decreed that Yase village would remain exempt from tax payments as they had been previously. The festival was said to have begun as a way to represent the village’s gratitude for him.

The festival begins at night. Dressed in dancing clothes, girls and thirteen- and fourteen-year-old boys gather in a line near the local assembly hall. The boys are dressed in white women’s kimonos and are given light makeup. Above their heads are huge lanterns upon which are intricate pieces of artwork made with red paper cuttings that depict warriors and animals. When the sign to begin is given, the boys and girls form a line and climb the stairs up to the shrine. The boys are still young and so carrying these huge lanterns above their heads is as much as they can manage. The lights sway from left to right like wooden torches.

The stairs that lead to the torii gate lie between the mountains. As I walk behind the group, I look around and see the shape of the mountains illuminated by the moon in the pitch-dark sky. Mountains in front and mountains to the side—I am surrounded by them. When we reach the shrine, the performance in the grounds isn’t the usual boisterous festival, but a heartwarming party which gives an indication to the strength of the bonds within the village. It seems like a celebration of the mountains that guard the lives of the people who live there.