On December 20, 2025, the annual end-of-year "soot-sweeping" event was held at Nishi Honganji Temple and Higashi Honganji Temple in Shimogyo Ward, Kyoto City. Followers and monks pounded the tatami mats in the Goeido and Amida Halls with bamboo sticks to sweep away a year's worth of dust.
This is said to be a traditional event that has been carried on since the time of Rennyo (1415-1499), the founder of the Jodo Shinshu sect of Buddhism who revived Honganji Temple.
At Nishi Honganji Temple, the soot-sweeping ceremony began at around 7 a.m., with Chief Executive Fujimi Mugoku swinging a roughly 4-meter broom from side to side, as Abbot Otani Kojun looked on. Around 500 participants, wearing hand towels on their heads and masks over their mouths, struck the tatami mats inside the temple with sticks called "susudake" (soot bamboo) in both hands. The dust that flew up was then fanned outside with a large fan about two meters long.
A 60-year-old man from Kyoto's Shimogyo Ward, who was participating for the first time, said with a smile, "Bending over to do the work was harder than I thought. I come here often to pray, so I hope I was able to be of some help."
The event began at 9 a.m. at Higashi Honganji Temple. Around 200 people lined up in a row and moved forward, beating the tatami mats with bamboo sticks in time with shouts. Finally, Shinmon Otani Yu wrote "Kotobuki" (longevity) in the air with a three-meter-long broom to finish the event.
