The Last Urabon Festival Oil on canvas, 73×91cm,
The Last Urabon Festival — Azuchi, 14 August 1581
Every year vassals make a bonfire in front of their own houses, and nothing was burnt at Nobunaga's castle, but that night the complete reverse happened. That is, Nobunaga forbade any vassals from burning fire in front of the house, and only he had the upper castle tower decorated with colourful and gorgeous beautiful lanterns. With verandas surrounding the seven floors, it towered high, and innumerable lanterns looked like burning in the sky, giving a vivid landscape.
He gathered a large crowd of people holding torches on the street which started at a corner of our monastery, passed in front of it, and got to the foot of the castle hill, and arranged the people neatly on both sides of the long street. Many high-ranking young samurais and soldiers ran down the street. The torches are made of reeds, so when burning out, they emitted sparks. Those who held it intentionally showered sparks on the ground.The streets were filled with these fire, and young samurais ran over them. After a considerable amount of time, as the priests, monks, and children of Seminario relaxed and watched the festival fire through the windows, Nobunaga walked past the entrance to our monastery. The missionary and the other priests went out and took a deep bow to please him, Nobunaga chatted with them for a long time, asked if they had seen the festival, what they thought about it, and after asking a variety of other questions, he left them.(History of Japan, Luis Frois)
