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Kyoto rejects ceremonial bonfire wood from Iwate over radiation fears

by Japan Today

Japan's former imperial capital of Kyoto apologized Saturday after rejecting wood from the tsunami-ravaged Pacific coast for a traditional bonfire festival over fears of radioactive contamination. For centuries, Kyoto has marked the end of a Buddhist holiday season, during which ancestors' souls are believed to return home, by setting giant bonfires on mountains. In modern times the event has been held every August 16, and Rikuzentakata, a city in Japan's northeast devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, last month offered Kyoto wood from pine trees uprooted by the waves. The double disaster left 2,140 people dead or missing in Rikuzentakata-about 10% of those who perished overall-and left only one of the 70,000 pine trees that once lined its scenic coastline standing. (Japan Today)