Kyoto Daimonji held with March 11 messages

An annual bonfire festival has been held in Kyoto with messages from survivors of the March 11 disaster inscribed on local firewood.

The city government originally planned to use the firewood from trees swept away by the March 11 tsunami. But the plan was cancelled after radioactive cesium was detected in wood sent from the hard-hit town of Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture.

Instead, event organizers used local wood and copied the survivors' eulogies or messages on them.

On Tuesday evening, the first fire was lit in the shape of the Chinese character "Dai", meaning large, followed by silent prayers for the disaster victims.

As Buddhist monks chanted sutras, four other fires were lit in a variety of shapes such as a boat and shrine gate, on the slopes of adjacent mountains.

The display illuminated the night sky above the ancient capital.

It is believed the bonfires help send off the souls of ancestors that have briefly returned home during the Buddhist Bon festival in mid-August.