A sacred Buddhist hall on the top of Mount Misen in Japan was destroyed by fire—but an “eternal flame” said to have been burning for more than a millennium was rescued and moved to another site, where it continues to glow.
As reported in the New York Times, Reikado Hall, in the south of Japan, “was reduced to a charred skeleton after a fire tore through the building, engulfing its wooden prayer rooms.” No one was injured, fortunately, and the flame that had been burning for some 1,200 years was salvaged and transferred to a less traumatized location.
In a statement, the Daisho-in temple, which oversaw the damaged hall, said, “We have received many messages of sympathy. Thank you for your concern.”
Reikado Hall had been rebuilt after a previous fire in 2005, after an accident following cleanup from a typhoon. The cause of the latest fire in under investigation.
The Times noted that Japanese temples and shrines, often constructed with materials like wood, thatch, and bark, are particularly vulnerable to combustion. “There have been several such blazes recently, including at Daihoji Temple in northern Japan, where 13 buildings were damaged this month in a fire that likely started in a kitchen. In April, the Atago shrine in the port city of Niigata burned in a late-night fire, cause unknown.”
As for the “eternal flame” itself, the story goes that it was lit by the ninth-century monk Kukai, who founded the Shingon school of Buddhism. And it has special properties: “Water boiled in an iron kettle over the flame is revered as having healing properties and bringing good fortune.”
