Uneme Festival is held annually in Koriyama City, Fukushima Pref. The festival started in 1965, when 9 towns and villages in Azumi County were consolidated into Koriyama City, and the sentiment for a festival to unite towns-people arose. In response to this call, Uneme Festival was created by borrowing the motif from the local legend of Uneme. The legend has it that in the Nara period (710-794), Princess Haruhime had to leave her fiancé and became a Uneme (court lady) for the Emperor to save her hometown, Azumi Village (presently Koriyama City), which had been suffering from the cold-weather damage. Not being able to forget her fiancé, she pretended to commit a suicide one day and ran back to her native village. What was waiting for her was the dead body of her fiancé and she killed herself to follow him. During the two days of the festival, about 6,000 dancers in elaborate costumes dance and walk under chochin lanterns hanging from bamboo logs along the streets. This joyful festival creates harmony among the people in consolidated Koriyama City.