Kobe City: Stove Lighting Ceremony at Rokkosan Elementary School

Press Release (October 13, 2023)
Kobe City Rokkosan Elementary School
Every year, Rokkosan Elementary School holds a stove lighting ceremony on the 24th day of the year, which is frost day. Fourth graders who are trying to start a fire for the first time, together with fifth and sixth graders, light the stone stove in the entrance hall using a “Maigiri-style fire-starter,” which uses friction of tools to start a fire. This is a traditional event in which children cooperate with their peers from different grades during this season of the year when we feel the arrival of winter.

Date and Time

Tuesday, October 24, 2023, 9:15 to 11:00 a.m. (rain or shine)

Place

: Kobe Municipal Rokkosan Elementary School Gymnasium and Entrance Hall (4512-42 Kita-Rokko, Rokkosan-cho, Nada-ku, Kobe)

Schedule

9:15 a.m. Introduction ceremony
9:20 a.m. 4th grade presentation on fire
9:40 a.m. Fire making work begins
10:25 a.m. Lighting of fire

Ceremony
10:55 Closing Ceremony

Others

・Located at an altitude of 795 meters above Mt. Rokko, the school experiences cold mornings and evenings in October, with a maximum temperature of around 15℃.
When the morning temperature drops below 10℃, a fire is lit on the stove in the entrance hall. When the temperature drops below 10°C in the morning, a fire is lit on the stove in the entrance hall, and students come to school and put their hands on the stove to warm themselves before going up to their classrooms.
The stove in the entrance hall was donated in 2005.
The firewood used for the stove comes from logs cut on the school grounds and from waste wood donated by local residents.

If you wish to cover the event, please contact Mr. Kawagoe, the vice principal, by 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, October 19.
There is no parking at the school.
No shoes are allowed in the gymnasium.
We will do our best to cooperate with any media coverage of the event, but we will not allow any “redoing for the sake of filming” etc.
We are considering introducing the event in school newsletters, etc., so we ask for your cooperation in providing photos and videos used in articles and programs.
Please wear your company’s armband when you cover the event.