Omizutori , or the annual, sacred Water Drawing Festival , is a Japanese Buddhist festival that takes place in the NIgatsu-do of Todai-ji, Nara, Japan. The festival is the final rite in observance of the two week long Shuni-e ceremony. This ceremony is to cleanse the people of their sins as well as to usher in spring of the New Year. Once the Omizutori is completed, the cherry blossoms have started blooming and spring has arrived. The rite occurs on the last night of the Shuni-e ceremony, when monks bearing torches come to the Wakasa Well , underneath the Nigatsu-do Hall, which according to legend only springs forth water once a year. The ceremony has occurred in the Nigatsu-do of the imperial temple at Nara, of the Todai-ji, since it was first founded. These annual festivals have been dated back to the year of 752. The earliest known records of the use of an incense seal during the religious rites in Japan were actually used during one Omizutori. E
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