Yuwakuinari Shrine

This guide to Yuwakuinari Shrine above Kanazawa opens with a question: why does a small hillside shrine light hundreds of paper lanterns every October and then burn them? It traces back to Kannazuki, the old calendar's month without gods, when villagers feared their local kami might lose the path home while every spirit in Japan traveled to Izumo, and lined the approach with bonbori lanterns to light the way. Visitors still tie handwritten wishes to those lanterns, notes that are burned at the festival's end so the smoke can carry them onward.