"Arashiyama Toro Nagashi," or a floating lantern offering to send off the spirits of ancestors, was held the evening of August 16 on the Katsura River, downstream from Togetsu-kyo Bridge in Ukyo Ward, Kyoto. About seven thousand lanterns colored the right bank of the river orange, and the dreamlike light flickered over the water's surface.

"Saga Butto Renmei," or Saga Buddhist federation, an organization made up of local residents from the Saga, Arashiyama, Hirosawa and Mizuo districts, hosts the event to console both the war dead and victims of water related accidents. The federation holds this floating lantern offering every year in conjunction with "Shoryo Okuri," or the sending off of ancestral spirits, at the end of the Obon holiday.

The lanterns waveringly drifted across the water's surface as they were released one after the other while women chanted Buddhist hymns and monks recited Buddhist sutras at 7:00p.m. With the Daimonji and Toriigata ceremonial fires seen from afar, crowds of families and others enjoyed the late-summer atmosphere to the full.