8,000 Goma #1

Spring Fire Ritual of 8,000 Offerings - Opening Service

Streaming Schedule

• Around 4:00 PM JST on April 12, 2026
• The start time may shift depending on the progress of the service

What the Opening Service Means

Byodoji Temple, the 22nd sacred site of the Shikoku Pilgrimage, will live-stream the opening service of its spring Fire Ritual of 8,000 Offerings.

The opening service marks the first of 63 goma services held over 22 days. From this first seat, three weeks of preliminary practice begin, with three fire services each day and one hundred thousand mantra recitations, all leading to the final grand goma on May 3, 2026.

What This Rite Is

This rite is one of the major austerities of Shingon Esoteric Buddhism. Over the course of the discipline, the practitioner performs daily goma services, recites the mantra one hundred thousand times, and on the final day offers a long goma while fasting and abstaining from water.

It has long been cherished as a practice through which sincere prayers are brought to fulfillment by being entrusted to the sacred flames.

The Prayer Intention of This Service

At Byodoji, the service is dedicated to Yakushi Nyorai, the Healing Buddha, whose vow is to heal the sufferings of body and mind equally.

Special prayers are welcomed for recovery from illness, bodily well-being, protection from cancer, healthy legs and back, relief for eye ailments, easing of mental distress, support in living with diabetes, and other long-carried concerns.

Prayers Welcomed For

• Recovery from illness
• Bodily well-being
• Protection from cancer
• Healthy legs and back
• Peace of body and mind
• Relief for eye ailments
• Easing of mental distress
• Support in living with diabetes
• Family safety
• Removal of misfortune
• Good connections
• Memorial prayers for ancestors

If You Are Joining the Stream in Prayer

If you have already submitted a prayer, please join the stream and quietly hold the person's name and wish in your heart.

Those who live far away or cannot come to the temple are warmly invited to pray with us from home.

Links

• Prayer application
• Special page

Byodoji Temple

Sacred Site No. 22 of the Shikoku Pilgrimage