Sacred 1,200-year-old flame saved after fire destroys Hiroshima temple hall
A fire destroyed Reikado Hall on Miyajima, but monks saved the 1,200-year-old inextinguishable flame before the building collapsed.
A sacred flame said to have burned for nearly 1,200 years survived even as Reikado Hall burned to the ground on Miyajima Island, turning one of Hiroshima Prefecture’s most closely watched religious sites into a scene of loss and continuity at once.
Firefighters in Hatsukaichi received an emergency call around 8:30 a.m. on May 20, 2026, reporting a fire at the hall near the summit of Mount Misen. The blaze was brought under control shortly after 10:30 a.m. No injuries were reported, but the hall was destroyed and flames spread into nearby woodland. About 30 square meters burned, according to reports citing firefighters and local coverage, and a hut near the hall also burned down.
Reikado Hall belongs to Daishoin Temple, a main temple of the Omuro School of Shingon Buddhism founded in 806 by the monk Kukai, also known as Kobo Daishi. The hall housed the Kiezu-no-hi, or inextinguishable flame, which temple tradition says Kukai lit during a goma prayer ritual and has kept burning ever since. A Daishoin official removed the flame to another location before the hall was lost, preserving the object that many pilgrims and visitors regard as the site’s spiritual heart.
Fire authorities said the blaze may have originated from the sacred flame. The hall stands within the landscape associated with Itsukushima Shrine and Mount Misen, an area recognized as part of the UNESCO World Heritage site on Miyajima. For Daishoin and for the broader island, the destruction of the structure does not erase the symbol it held. The flame has long carried meaning beyond the temple grounds, and some accounts say it later helped inspire Hiroshima’s Flame of Peace at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.
This was not the first time Reikado Hall was lost. The structure burned down in 2005 and was rebuilt in 2006, with a charred pillar from the earlier building reportedly displayed in the current hall. Its latest destruction underscores a larger tension in modern Japan’s heritage preservation: buildings can be rebuilt, but the survival of a ritual object, carried out before the hall fell, can matter just as much as the wood and plaster that were consumed.
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