murmurUneme Festival (Uneme Shrine, Sarusawa Pond)
Nara City · Uneme Shrine (Sarusawa Pond)
Dates and details can change. Always check the official website before you go.
Nara City Tourism Association (Uneme Festival Preservation Society) · Last checked: Oct 10, 2026
Dates
Dates confirmed with official sources
- 2026
- Sep 24–25, 2026 （Ended） Eve festival Sep 24, main festival Sep 25
- 2027
- Dates have not been announced yet. Please check the official website.
- Usual timing
- Usually late September
- How the date is set
- Changes from year to year Held on the night of the Harvest Moon, with an eve festival the day before
- Venue
- Uneme Shrine (Sarusawa Pond)
- City
- Nara City, Nara
About
On the night of the Harvest Moon, Uneme Shrine, a small subsidiary of Kasuga Taisha beside Sarusawa Pond, holds its annual festival. It starts with a parade of participants in period dress carrying a flower fan through the city. After rites at the shrine the fan is moved onto a boat, and as gagaku court music plays the boat circles the pond; at the end the fan is thrown into the water. The shrine's story comes from the Yamato Monogatari, a mid-Heian collection of poem-tales: in the Nara period an uneme, a woman who attended the emperor, drowned herself in the pond after losing his favor, and the shrine was built to soothe her spirit.
Sources
- OfficialNara City Tourism Association (Uneme Festival Preservation Society) narashikanko.or.jp
Last checked: Oct 10, 2026. Event information is based on official announcements, but changes may not always be reflected here. Please check each official website for accurate details.
On the day, see what locals are murmuring on the murmur map
murmur is an app that shows short, anonymous posts on a map, right where they were written. On festival day, open the map around the venue and see what people nearby are saying.