The Taimatsu Akashi fire festival has been held in Sukagawa in Fukushima Prefecture for over 420 years. Each year in mid-November, an array of 22 torches, standing ten meters tall and weighing over three tons each, are carried to the summit of Mount Goro by local volunteers. A flame is brought up the mountain from the local Nikaido Shrine and each torch is set alight by a person who climbs to the top of each one. The festival commemorates the losses suffered in a battle fought here at the turn of the 16th century.