Uneme Festival

Every year around mid-September, this rite is held at Uneme-jinja Shrine in Nara Prefecture. It's intended to soothe the spirit of a woman, a Uneme maid-in-waiting, who supposedly drowned herself in Sarusawa pond after being spurned by the emperor in the Nara period. The ceremony centers around the Hana-ogi Dedication Procession, where dozens of women dressed in Nara-period clothing parade with a display of the 7 Flowers of Autumn and flower-fan decorated portable shrines, and the Rite of Kangen Boats in which flower-decorated boats sail Sarusawa pond offering the flower wreath to the spirit in the waters. The festival is truly filled with a sense of history.