Seiryuin “Toro nagashi”（Lantern Floating） memorial service

Seiryuin holds a lantern floating memorial service in Kominato, Chiba Prefecture at the end of July every year.

Lantern floating is a kind of event to send off ancestors who were welcomed home during the Bon Festival. It is also a memorial service for those who have drowned and those who are unrelated to the deceased (Muenbotoke).

The purpose of Lantern Floating is to send the souls of the dead back to the afterlife. The idea is that the souls of the dead return to the other world through the rivers and seas, and the lanterns are meant to help the souls return home by marking their way so that they do not get lost.

It is believed that the spirits of ancestors and the deceased return to this world during the Obon period, and at the end of the Obon period, they return to their original world. It is customary to burn bonfires to mark the return of the spirits, and the toro-nagashi is one of these bonfires.