Nara City Tourism Association

This is a subsidiary shrine of Kasuga Taisha Shrine, and it is located on the banks of Sarusawa Pond. According to Yamato Monogatari, an uta monogatari (a poem tale) from the mid-Heian period (794–1185), a beautiful lady-in-waiting (female court attendants who served the emperor and empress in the palace and took care of their personal needs) who was serving the emperor in the Nara period (710–794), lamented that the emperor no longer favored her and threw herself into the pond. The shrine is said to have been built to appease her spirit. The shaden (shrine building) has been erected with its back to the torii (gate) and Sarusawa Pond, but there is also a legend that the palace had turned its back to the pond overnight as it could not bear to look at the pond that the lady-in-waiting had drowned in. On the harvest moon day every year, the Uneme Matsuri (Uneme Festival) is held here to appease the spirit of the lady-in-waiting and pray for the happiness of the people. 

The annual festival begins with the Hanaogi Hono Gyoretsu (a procession for the offering of flower fans) in which the bearers of the flower fans, dressed in period costumes, parade through the city. After the rituals of the Unemejina Shrine's annual festival have been performed, the flower fans are transferred to a kangensen (a boat used for musical performances) and the Kangensen no Gi ritual is held. During this ceremony, the boat travels around the pond to the tunes of Japanese court music. Finally, the flower fans are thrown into the pond and prayers are offered to appease Uneme's spirit. The kangensen floating in the moonlight, along with the people dressed in costumes from the time of Emperor Tenpyo's reign, creates an elegant and magical landscape.

*Entry to the precincts of the shrine is only permitted during events.