Floating Lantern Ceremony (Toro-nagashi) – 灯篭流し

Every year on August 16th

Paper lanterns are sent floating down Ohashi River, Matsue's main river, symbolising the ancestral spirits' return to the world of the dead. This Buddhist ceremony marks the end of Obon, when the spirits of ancestors are said to revisit household altars. Many people come and watch the ceremony from Matsue Ohashi Bridge and surrounding riverbanks.