A mountain-burning event takes place every year at Mt. Wakakusa.
This year's fireworks were fantastic. It might be because of the memorial year of 1300, capital relocation of Nara.
Exactly 10 years earlier, I was shooting the fireworks for the climactic scene for the film "HOTARU."
I was just into making this film as much as I almost forgot my only son.
And this year, I watched the fireworks with my son holding him beneath my stadium jacket.
In "HOTARU" the protagonist Ayako is carrying a baby of Daiji inside her.
And she whispers to Daiji.
And Daiji also...
"Can you see, Ayako? The mountain's burning"
And for thousands of years, the mountain has been watching over us...

This year, the mountain burned well.
Foreign tourists might be startled at the sight if they don't know about the event
Saying "mountain fire!!"



Nara is a really wonderful place.
It's magnanimous, borderless, wide-open, and lovely.