Painted view from the hilltops of Brisbane looking east towards the Oakland hills and East Bay

 

 

 

 

...detail with Mount Diablo...

Daimonji Gozan Okuribi, Daimonji Bonfires, August / 2014

I never imagined I would be able to witness or document this once in a year or lifetime event.  As a part of the events of Obon,  the recognition and awareness of the return of the ancestor souls, this memorable evening was framed by rainstorms before and after and heavy mists that lifted before the lighting of the fires at 8:00 P.M. lasting for over thirty minutes.  

I painted the upper view and my daughter painted the middle and lower Kanji characters in yellow for "Dai" or BIG! 

"... The Daimonji Gozan Okuribi (Daimonji Bonfire) is an event held every year, rain or shine, on the evening of August 16th, when gigantic Chinese characters and other motifs are depicted by fires lit to illuminate the surroundings for patrolling on the slopes of the mountains surrounding the Kyoto Basin. It is a famous for evoking the image of a Kyoto summer.

Although there are several interpretations as to the origins of this event, it is generally regarded as a fire set alight at the gate for seeing off the souls of ancestors after commemorating the welcoming of their souls.
The character of "dai" (meaning "large") on Mt. Daimonji, and those of "myo" and "ho"which make up the word "Myo-ho" (wondrous teaching of Buddha) on Matsugasaki Nishiyama and Higashiyama mountains are famous..."

http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/location/spot/festival/gozanokuribi.html