/ 2025 / Press / Performing Arts

• Prize
  Honorable Mention
• Photographer
  Tetsuya Okubo, Japan

In the wake of the 2024 Noto Peninsula earthquake, the Abare Festival returned with undiminished force and devotion.

Captured in the sacred moment of purification, this image shows men casting a burning mikoshi into the Kannoji River, where fire from towering torches rains down. This fierce ritual of water and flame marks the final cleansing before entering the shrine, a symbolic rebirth through trial.

Set in Ishikawa, Japan, the scene embodies both centuries-old tradition and the unbroken spirit of a region rising from disaster.