nebuta

(You know, nebuta ended two weeks ago, and I've got a bunch of new stuff to write about, so I'm gonna leave this entry half-researched, and a quarter finished. My bad... still I will put up a couple more pictures for good measure. Also, a caveat, most of my information is from the official nebuta website, local people and the japanese wikipedia entry, so a grain of salt may be appropriate.)

Each year, in early August, Aomori City welcomes over 3 million people (ten times it's resident population) to watch or to take part in the Nebuta Matsuri.

The origins of Nebuta are, like a lot of history in Japan, not perfectly clear, and open to debate. The most widely accepted theory has the parade beginning as a display of power to intimidate the enemy. Hearing the boom of the dozens and dozens of taiko drums as the massive parade moves down the main streets of modern Aomori City, I find that theory more than plausible. As for the word "Nebuta", I've only heard one theory: that the local word "nemutai", itself a derivative of "nemuru" (to sleep), mutated over time into the current "nebuta" as well as "neputa" (the Hirosaki city equivalent of nebuta).

Literally months of preparation go into the parade. The buliding of the massive floats goes on silently from early in the year. The big floats are mostly built by artisans, paid for their work by corporations like mitsubishi, or the local city hall.

notice the great big Japan Rail logo

Although the floats are being built nearly year-round, it isn't until late May or early June that Nebuta really starts to take hold of the city. As the weather warms up, the taiko drummers begin to practice. As the number of practicing drum teams grows throughout the summer, their powerful rythym gradually fills the city, building to a crescendo of daily practice in the weeks preceeding the big parade.
Once the festival begins, it runs for seven nights. The first six nights, the floats and the rest of the participants parade through the center of the city on a roughly two hour circuit. On the seventh night, the floats are set on boats to parade through the bay underneath an unbelievably long fireworks display.

See my other nebuta related entries as well: beep beep; karasuzoku; sneak peak; wallpaper
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