The China Mail - Mountain festival marks spring arrival high above Tokyo

The Hinode Sai, or Sunrise festival, is believed to have started when wandering ascetics climbed Mount Mitake in search of enlightenment. Each spring, it attracts devotees from across Japan to the still largely untouched mountaintop about 55 kilometres (30 miles) from Tokyo's metropolitan area.

The annual two-day ritual sees the shrine's deity -- carefully wrapped in white silk and hidden from public view -- brought from the summit down to a temporary "resting place" at the mountain's base before being returned in a celebratory ascent.

Shrine officials say participants receive the deity's blessing, offering protection for households and freedom from illness for the year ahead.

The ritual, which has continued since the Middle Ages, according to the shrine's website, also symbolises the arrival of spring.

The silent procession began Tuesday evening, winding through a mountain village past devotees and shuttered shops bestowing blessing as it went.

Guided by lantern light, priests took the wrapped deity down to its overnight resting place believed to be where it originally descended from the heavens.

At dawn, the Shinto priests in court robes -- joined by people dressed as armoured samurai warriors and children in ceremonial attire -- set off on a kilometre-long climb back to the summit shrine.

Their pilgrimage culminated with the echo of conch shells through the forest as the procession completed its final ascent of 330 stone steps to the mountaintop.

D.Peng--ThChM