A man with soot-covered cheeks wearing a costume made of rice straw sloshes water from a pail on Saturday in a traditional festival known as the Yonekawa Mizukaburi, which has been held for more than 800 years to pray for protection from fire in Tome, Miyagi Prefecture. The festival is part of "Raiho-shin, ritual visits of deities in masks and costumes," which was inscribed in 2018 on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
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