Hira Hakko

A Buddhist service performed on the western shore of Lake Biwa to pray for abundant crops and proper seasonal transitions.

The Hira Hakko is a Buddhist lecture and memorial service with readings of the eight scrolls of the Lotus Sutra that is conducted at Enpo-ji Temple in Hira, Shiga Prefecture, on the western shore of Lake Biwa. During the Hira Hakko, devotees of the Tendai sect of Buddhism scatter sacred water taken from Mt. Uchimi in the Hira mountain range from atop a boat on Lake Biwa, as a prayer to purify the lake’s waters. It is said that devotees at the temples of Hira would pray to the deities Hira Myojin and Hira Gongen when winter changed into spring, reading the eight scrolls of the Lotus Sutra and asking for abundant crops and proper seasonal transitions. This was the origin of the Hira Hakko service.