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灯籠流し (とうろうながし) Japanese meaning | Kotomora
Meanings 1
noun
floating lantern ceremony
A Buddhist ceremony held in summer, especially during Obon, where paper lanterns are set afloat on rivers to guide ancestral spirits back to the other world.
に
輝かがや
い
た
。
The river surface shone fantastically with the floating lanterns.
Written forms 灯とう 籠ろう 流なが し
Standard kanji spelling for the ceremony.
灯とう 篭ろう 流なが し
Variant kanji for 灯籠; 篭 is a common alternative to 籠.
Kanji 籠 basket, devote oneself, seclude oneself Similar words 精霊流しょうろうなが し A similar ceremony, but often involves sending off the spirits with boats or lanterns, and is particularly associated with Nagasaki.
盆ぼん 踊おど り Bon dance, another Obon tradition, but focused on dancing rather than lanterns.
Etymology Compound of 灯籠 (tōrō, 'lantern') and 流し (nagashi, 'floating, sending off'), from the verb 流す (nagasu, 'to float, to set adrift').
