![Uneme Festival](/kansaiguide/data/directory/16000/15018/20211015_062658_558a70b6_w1920.jpg)
Uneme Festival
The highlight is the Kangen-bune ritual, a boat procession between rows of lanterns
The Uneme Festival is an annual event at Uneme-jinja Shrine, a subordinate shrine of Kasuga Taisha Grand Shrine. It is a traditional event in Nara City with a history of approximately 600 years. The Yoimiya-matsuri and Hon-matsuri celebrations take place around the night of the harvest moon. The festival comprises the Yoimiya-matsuri, a votive procession of flower fans, a votive flower fans ritual, and a Kangen-bune boat ritual. The highlight is the otherworldly atmosphere created at night by the last of these rites when the pond, illuminated by lanterns, is circled by two dragon-shaped boats.
Uneme-jinja Shrine: During the Nara period, uneme was a term indicating a female courtier who attended to the emperor in the inner palace. One such uneme, lamenting that she had fallen out of favor with the emperor, threw herself into Sarusawa-ike Pond. Yamato Monogatari, a work written in the middle of the Heian period, states that Uneme-jinja Shrine was constructed in order to console her spirit.
Photos
![](/kansaiguide/data/directory/16000/15018/20211015_062658_558a70b6_w640.jpg)
![](/kansaiguide/data/directory/16000/15018/20211015_062659_b11e3d0b_w640.jpg)
Event information
- Access
- From Osaka: Take the JR Yamatoji Line or the Kintetsu Nara Line to Nara Station
- Date
- 9 Sep 2022 - 10 Sep 2022
- Period
- *15th day of the 8th month of the old lunar calendar
- Website
- https://narashikanko.or.jp/en/event/unemematsuri/
- Others
- 「写真提供:奈良市観光協会」
Map
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