The "Toba Fire Festival," which is said to have started about 1,200 years ago, is held at the Toba Shinmeisha Shrine. A 5-meter-high "suzumi" made of bamboo and thatch is set on fire, and the men of the shrine and their attendants, dressed in costumes made of old streamers, dash bravely into the flames and compete to remove the sacred tree and the 12 ropes to be offered to the temple. The degree of the burning of the "suzumi" and the outcome of the contest will determine the weather and the harvest for the year to come.