Gozan no Okuribi — luxury itineraries and concierge.

Gozan no Okuribi, from an operator's side.

On the night of 16 August, fires are lit in sequence on five hillsides around Kyoto — the great character on Daimonji first, the others following at intervals — to see the spirits of the dead back at the close of Obon. There is no parade, no music and no admission. Clients stand somewhere with a sightline, the hills burn for half an hour or so, and it is over. Handled as an item on a list it is a distant orange shape above a crowded pavement. Handled properly, with a private terrace, the right hill and someone who has explained what is being sent away, it is the most affecting evening in the Kyoto calendar.

• Every fire is on a different hill and no single public spot sees them all, so the viewpoint is the entire product and the ordinary ones are shoulder to shoulder hours early.
• The good private terraces, rooftops and riverside rooms are held by relationships rather than sold openly, and they are committed long before August.
• It falls in the middle of Obon, the heaviest domestic travel week of the Japanese year, on top of a Kyoto that is already at its August peak.

Basing decides the file.

Kyoto itself, and as close to the chosen viewpoint as the inventory allows — the fires are lit after dark, the crowds move in one direction afterwards and a vehicle transfer across the city on that night is slow to the point of useless. We pick the hotel to suit the viewing position rather than the other way round.

When to start.

Twelve months. The date never moves, it sits inside Obon, and the private viewing that separates this from a kerbside glimpse is arranged through people rather than platforms. There is no late version of this file that is worth selling.